An Eyewitness Remembers the Century of the Holy Spirit

A historian of Pentecostalism and a highly regarded denominational leader, Synan has written a summary of the seminal moments in the North American Pentecostal movement. Less a memoir and more of a guide to newcomers, the book presents the rise of practices such as speaking in tongues and healings in the first decade of the 20th century and their spread to Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in the 1960s. The book breathlessly portrays events with tired adjectives such as “amazing” and “awesome” and “incredible.” But its simplicity of presentation is a useful shorthand for conveying big events such as the racial breakthroughs of the 1990s and the phenomenal spread of exuberant worship styles to churches outside the movement. A retired dean of Pat Robertson’s Regent University divinity school, Synan argues in favor of the “prosperity gospel,” though he acknowledges excesses on the part of some of its vocal proponents. He is more critical in his views of the “new apostolic movement,” in which pastors of large churches declare themselves apostles, as holding the potential for abuse. (Apr.)