Abstract
This chapter advances a historical investigation of ecstatic Protestantism. It discusses the Camisard prophets, the Shakers, the Great Awakening described by Jonathan Edwards, and the first generation of American Pentecostalism. The biographies of Ann Lee, Charles Fox Parham, and William Seymour are used to illustrate the institutionally destabilizing power of ecstatic experience, an epistemological problem concerning the cause of ecstatic states, and ritual norms that frame such states. Mullis discusses the theology that informed early understandings of divine gifts—such as ecstatic dancing, glossolalia, and faith healing—which remain relevant in contemporary contexts. The chapter concludes by examining a biblically informed understanding of ritual reenactment and the manner in which ecstatic experience is understood in terms of specific soteriological, eschatological, and pneumatological beliefs.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
This belief is based on the biblical account of Jesus’ exorcism of the Gerasene demoniac named Legion as detailed in the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke as well as the Synoptic Gospels. Legion’s behavior is described as entailing involuntary movement, self-mortification, and super-human strength. For more on this topic see Garrett (1998: 40–42) and Gotman (2017: 49–51).
- 2.
For more on the ecstatic and concerns about shamming see Gotman (2017: 96–101).
- 3.
For example, the Kentucky revival of 1800 began the tradition of large gatherings (e.g. “camp meetings”) in rural settings (Boles 1996).
- 4.
It is perhaps for this reason that little is said about Lee’s former husband in Shaker histories beyond the fact that he abandoned her. For more on this see Stein (1992: 10–13).
- 5.
For more on Shakerism and sexuality see Foster (1984: 21–71).
- 6.
http://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-movements-and-denominations/ [accessed: 2/15/2018].
- 7.
For a thorough discussion of the decline of Shakerism see Stein (1992: 337–354).
- 8.
For more on fire baptism see Dayton (1987: 96–100).
- 9.
For a discussion of glossographia in Shakerism see Stein (1992: 184–196).
- 10.
- 11.
For White’s advocacy of the Ku Klux Klan see her The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy (2006).
- 12.
Two other strategies used by White, Parham, and the media were to insinuate that Seymour was getting rich off of his entranced followers and that the rapid growth of the movement was a form of contagion, that is, like the uncontrollable spread of a pestilent disease. See White (2017: 18) and Gotman (2017: 241–251, 288–294).
- 13.
Both Parham and Seymour initially tried to avoid the problem of financial gain by emphasizing freely given donations—instead of a more formal system of tithing—and institutions that did not amass donated funds. This was difficult to maintain, however, as their organizations continued to draw new members.
- 14.
In reply, it could be replied that pneumatology, soteriology, and eschatology are not featured in scholarly theology advanced by individuals such as Paul Tillich, Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas, or Jean-Luc Marion. However, this presumes a theory-practice dichotomy in which thinking about religious experience is inevitably parasitic on practice. That dichotomy would also close of the possibility that Pentecostal theology is actively performed during ecstatic rituals.
- 15.
Crawley suggests that, in emphasizing xenolalia instead of glossolalia, Parham was attempting to distinguish white from black sacred speech, with the latter being dismissed as animalistic gibberish (2017: 213–220). However, in fact, Seymour never accepted this and consistently reported and celebrated the many xenolalic utterances that occurred at Azusa.
- 16.
In earlier essays, Crawley uses queer and feminist theory to engage the cultural conservativism that characterizes some black Pentecostal churches (2008a, b). For work on black theology, conservativism, and black political movements see Ware (2011) and Turner Jr. (2011). For a captivating autobiographical account see Pearson (2009).
- 17.
For an interdisciplinary approach see Yong and Alexander (2011).
References
Alexander, Estrelda. 2011. Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African-American Pentecostalism. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press.
Boddy, Janice. 1994. Spirit Possession Revisited: Beyond Instrumentality. Annual Review of Anthropology 23 (1): 407–434.
Boles, John. 1996. The Great Revival: Beginnings of the Bible Belt. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.
Classen, Joachim. 1977. Anaximander and Anaximenes: The Earliest Greek Theories of Change? Phronesis 15 (3): 89–102.
Crawley, Ashon. 2008a. Circum-Religious Performance: Queer(ed) Black Bodies and the Black Church. Theology & Sexuality 14 (2): 201–222.
———. 2008b. “Let’s Get It On!” Performance Theory and Black Pentecostalism. Black Theology 6 (3): 308–329.
———. 2017. Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Davies, T. Adrian, and Adrian Davies. 2000. The Quakers in English Society, 1655–1725. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dayton, Donald. 1987. Theological Roots of Pentecostalism. Ada: Baker Academic.
Edwards, Jonathan. 2013. A Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections. New York: Dover.
Espinosa, Gastón. 2014. William J. Seymour and the Origins of Global Pentecostalism: A Biography and Documentary History. Durham: Duke University Press.
Foster, Lawrence. 1984. Religion and Sexuality: The Shakers, the Mormons, and the Oneida Community. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Garrett, Clarke. 1998. Spirit Possession and Popular Religion: From the Camisards to the Shakers. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.
Godelier, Maurice. 1999. The Enigma of the Gift. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Goff, James Jr. 1988. Fields White unto Harvest: Charles F. Parham and the Missionary Origins of Pentecostalism. Little Rock: University of Arkansas Press.
Gotman, Kélina. 2017. Choreomania: Dance and Disorder. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jennings, Chris. 2016. Paradise Now: The Story of American Utopianism. New York: Random House.
Kalu, Ogbu. 2011. Black Joseph: Early African American Charismatic Missions and Pentecostal-Charismatic Engagements in the African Motherland. In Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture, ed. Amos Yong and Estrelda Alexander, 209–232. New York: New York University Press.
Marsden, George. 2003. Jonathan Edwards: A Life. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Mullis, Eric. 2008. Toward a Confucian Ethic of the Gift. Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 7 (2): 175–194.
Patterson, Daniel. 1979. The Shaker Spiritual. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Pearson, Carlton. 2009. The Gospel of Inclusion: Reaching Beyond Religious Fundamentalism to the True Love of God and Self. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Robeck, Cecil Jr. 2011. The Azusa Street Mission and Historic Black Churches. In Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture, ed. Amos Yong and Estrelda Alexander, 21–41. New York: New York University Press.
Rosenthal, Judy. 1998. Possession, Ecstasy, and Law in Ewe Voodoo. Richmond: University of Virginia Press.
Seymour, William. 2013. The Azusa Street Papers (1906–1908): The Apostolic Faith, The Original 13 Issues. New York: Pentecostal Books.
Stein, Stephen. 1992. The Shaker Experience in America. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Stephens, Randall. 2010. The Fire Spreads: Holiness and Pentecostalism in the American South. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Thornton, Michael. 2014. Fire in the Carolinas: The Revival Legacy of G.B. Cashwell and A.B. Crumpler. Lake Mary: Creation House.
Turner, William, Jr. 2011. Pneumatology: Contributions from African American Christian Thought to the Pentecostal Theological Task. In Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture, ed. Amos Yong and Estrelda Alexander, 169–189. New York: New York University Press.
Wacker, Grant. 2001. Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
Ware, Frederick. 2011. On the Compatibility/Incompatibility of Pentecostal Premillennialism with Black Liberation Theology. In Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture, ed. Amos Yong and Estrelda Alexander, 191–206. New York: New York University Press.
White, Alma. 2006. The Ku Klux Klan in Prophecy. Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing.
———. 2017. Demons and Tongues: A Work of Christian Demonology. New York: Create Space Independent Publishing.
Yong, Amos, and Estrelda Alexander. 2011. Afro-Pentecostalism: Black Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity in History and Culture. New York: New York University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mullis, E. (2019). Religious History: Spirit Poured Out on All Flesh. In: Pragmatist Philosophy and Dance. Performance Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29314-7_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29314-7_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-29313-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-29314-7
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)