Pentecostalism and the Question of Culture

In a recent article for Christianity Today, Ed Stetzer offers some sociological analysis as to why Pentecostals continue to experience growth despite trends of decline or stagnation among many forms of Christianity. His three reasons coalesce around the distinctive Pentecostal doctrine of a baptism in the Spirit. Mission is fueled, he says, by leaders who recognize this distinctiveness and who believe that it needs to be shared.

Pentecostals live, in other words, by what George Weigel has called the Iron Law of Christianity in Modernity: Christian communities that maintain a firm grasp on their doctrinal and moral boundaries can flourish amidst the cultural acids of modernity; Christian communities whose doctrinal and moral boundaries become porous (and then invisible) wither and die.

So the distinctiveness of this doctrine, and its strict adherence, is certainly one reason why Pentecostalism is flourishing. But this is only part of the story. Another factor in its growth, I would venture, is its resonance with particular elements of the popular culture. Here are four areas of striking resonance.... Read more