From here, the revival spread throughout the United States as leaders from various states who were present, carried the message back to their own churches (Stephens pp). Stephens notes that "diversity characterized their beliefs and theology, Pentecostals ranged from Wesleyan-holiness, to Reformed, and Unitarian" (Stephens pp). The historiography of Pentecostalism is multifaceted and the initial historical works came from within the movement itself (Stephens pp). Stephens notes that Pentecostal historians wrote within a providential framework that focused on the role of God rather than human and natural causation, and these histories were apologetic and largely "ahistorical" (Stephens pp). They more or less depicted the Pentecostal revival as "dropping from heaven like a sacred meteor," as evident in the titles of early works such as the 1916 The Apostolic Faith Restored, and the 1961 Suddenly From Heaven: A History of the Assemblies of God (Stephens pp).

Prior to 1970, there were few historians, outside of Pentecostalism, who were interested in the movement, since most academics were unfamiliar with the world of ecstatic religion or simply thought Pentecostalism was regressive and crude (Stephens pp). During the late 1960's, historian William G. McLoughlin argued that Pentecostalism was not a new force in American Religion and that like other reactionary religious movements would eventually fade with time (Stephens pp). According to David Edwin Harrell, prior to the 1970's, "scholars limited their study to articulate religious bodies and to groups that were pertinent to scholars' own academic interests" (Stephens pp). Since the 1970's, interests have sparked among historians both outside of and within the movement have critically engaged Pentecostalism...

Moreover, scholarship on Pentecostalism has grown, as evidenced by the increase in university and seminary-trained Pentecostal historians, and the establishment of the Society for Pentecostal Studies (Stephens pp).
It is primarily the doctrine of "speaking in tongues" that separates Pentecostals from other Holiness groups, such as the Methodist, as well as from most mainline Christian denominations (Pentecostalism pp). After 1875, the movement began to stress aspects of the "second blessing" which focused on an endowment of powerful anointing for those who tarried at the altars, and eventually this doctrine, the baptism in the Holy Spirit, was added with glossolalia as initial evidence of a "third blessing" (Pentecostalism pp). Conventional Holiness churches named this new baptism "The Fire" and labeled it as fanaticism and heresy (Pentecostalism pp).

In the 1990's Pentecostals and their charismatic brothers and sisters in the mainline Protestant and Catholic churches began turning their efforts toward world evangelization (Synan pp).

Works Cited

Pentecostalism. Retrieved November 01, 2005 at http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/penta.html

Pentecostalism1. Retrieved November 01, 2005 at http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/research_pentecostalism.html

Stephens, Randall J. Assessing the Roots of Pentecostalism. Retrieved November 01, 2005 at http://are.as.wvu.edu/pentroot.htm

Synan, Vinson. Holy Spirit Research Center: The Origins of the Pentecostal

Movement. Retrieved November 01, 2005 at http://www.oru.edu/university/library/holyspirit/pentorg1.html#neo