Pentecostalism in Chile

Definition

In the beginning of the twentieth century, Pentecostalism emerged in Chile through the missionary work and pastorship of Rev. Willis C. Hoover at the Methodist Episcopal Church in Valparaiso. Today, it is estimated that about 15% of the population identifies as Pentecostal and 25% of the countries’ Catholics identify as “charismatic.”

Introduction

Latin American Pentecostalism arguably was born in Chile, which has the oldest mass Protestantism in Latin America, at the turn of the twentieth century. Inspired by an account of the 1905 Pentecostal experience in India, US Methodist missionary Willis C. Hoover began to encourage the pursuit of similar experiences in his congregations. In 1910 after the Methodist authorities declared that spiritual “hysteria” is blasphemous, Hoover’s Valparaiso and Santiago congregations split from Methodism and established the Methodist Pentecostal Church. In the 1930s, the Pentecostal community split when Hoover’s followers founded the...