Black Fire - by Estrelda Y Alexander (Paperback)

About the Book

Many American Christians remain ignorant of black Pentacostalism. In this expansive historical overview, Estrelda Alexander recounts the story of African American Pentecostal origins and development. Whether you come from this tradition or you just want to learn more, this book will unfold all the dimensions of this important movement's history and contribution to the life of the church.

Book Synopsis

Estrelda Alexander was raised in an urban, black, working-class, oneness Pentecostal congregation in the 1950s and 1960s, but she knew little of her heritage and thought that all Christians worshiped and believed as she did. Much later she discovered that many Christians not only knew little of her heritage but considered it strange. Even today, most North Americans remain ignorant of black Pentecostalism.Black Fire remedies lack of historical consciousness by recounting the story of African American Pentecostal origins and development. In this fascinating description she covers

• what Pentecostalism retained from African spirituality
• the legacy of the nineteenth-century black Holiness movement
• William J. Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival
• African American trinitarian and oneness Pentecostal denominations
• the role of women in African American Pentecostalism
• African American neo-Pentecostals and charismatic movements
• black Pentecostals in majority-white denominations
• theological challenges of black Pentecostalism in the twenty-first century

Whether you come from an African American Pentecostal background or you just want to learn more, this book will unfold all the dimensions of this important movement's history and contribution to the life of the church.

Review Quotes

"Black Fire offers an expansive historical overview of African American Holiness-Pentecostals and their often overlooked contributions to the early development, dissemination and current vitality of the modern Pentecostal movement from its inception to the present. Students and scholars of African American religion and culture will appreciate its rich content, as well as its nuanced attention to matters of race, class, gender and generation."

--Karen Kossie-Chernyshev, Ph.D., professor of history, Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas

"Black Fire provides a much-needed narrative that completes, and at times corrects, the general histories of both American Christianity and the Pentecostal and charismatic movements."

--William Purinton, International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 36, No. 2

"Alexander is one of the few historians of black Pentecostalism who have attempted to synthesize the story of black Pentecostalism within one volume. This is a very challenging task that she does exceptionally well given the myriad number of black Pentecostal denominations. Her work is a first of its kind and a timely, valuable resource for students and scholars of African American religion in general and African American Pentecostalism in particular."

--Jonathan Langston Chism, Religious Studies Review, Vol. 42, No. 4, December 2016

"This book will provide its readers with a valuable overview of important monuments and figures from the past one hundred years. It presents a straightforward account of how African American Pentecostalism developed and changed over time. Because of the scope of this work, it will be helpful for general audiences who want to learn more about this topic or for use in an undergraduate course."

--Monica Reed, H-Net Pentecostalism, May 2014

About the Author

Estrelda Y. Alexander (Ph.D., The Catholic University of America) is a visiting professor of theology in the School of Divinity at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, and executive director of the William Seymour Educational Foundation.