William J. Seymour and the Origins of Global Pentecostalism: A Biography and Documentary History by Gastón Espinosa (review)

Gastón Espinosa’s William J. Seymour and the Origins of Global Pentecostalism rigorously and thoroughly demonstrates the importance and significance of African American William Seymour’s and that of the Azusa Street Revival’s roles in the origins and development of global Pentecostalism. Espinosa challenges the notion that Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival were “just one among many important leaders and centers of global Pentecostalism. Rather, they were the single most important leader, center, and catalyst (among many) in American (1906–9) and global Pentecostal origins until 1912” (151). Further, he asserts that while “Azusa wasn’t the only center, it was the most important—both literally and symbolically prior to 1909 in the U.S. and prior to 1912 around the world” (151).

Participating in a group of scholars writing a new “Pentecostal historiography” (18), a key methodology that Espinosa employs to show the preeminence of Seymour and the Azusa Revival is through ephemeral documentary evidence by Seymour and others between 1906 and 1915. Espinosa relies on this documentation to stage his argument. However, to the advantage of readers, more than half of the book reprints this evidence. Espinosa uses letters, sermons, and teachings written by Seymour or preached as sermons and then stenographically recorded by Clara Lum and others between 1906 and 1909. This evidence includes Seymour’s Doctrines and Discipline Minister’s Manual (1915); first-hand accounts of the Azusa Street Revival and Seymour’s leadership in Seymour’s The Apostolic Faith newspaper (1906–1908). Other sources provide historical overviews and testimonies about Seymour and the Azusa Revival and their influence around the world from histories, autobiographies, testimonies, diaries, reports, newspapers, books, and journals to document Seymour’s theological, social, and racial beliefs and his justification for black-white racial equality and reconciliation.

William J. Seymour, the Azusa Revival, and global Pentecostalism are significant to American studies for three reasons. First, the Pentecostal movement is one of the most powerful and fastest growing grassroots religious movements in the world today. The movement is typically broken down into three main groupings: Denominational Pentecostals, Charismatics, and Neo-Charismatics. Pentecostalism continues to expand in the Americas and throughout the world, which might influence American Studies scholars to consider the influence of Pentecostal beliefs on the people and practices they are studying.

Second, as Espinosa shows us through Seymour’s sermons and accounts from the revival, the Azusa revival was a “transgressive social space wherein racial-ethnic minorities, women, the working class, and others could cross some of the deeply inscribed unbiblical racial-ethnic, class, gender, and national borders and boundaries of the day” (101). In a time of legalized segregation and separate but equal practices in America, at Azusa, blacks, whites, and Latinos “laid hands” on each other to be healed and to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. These same people sat together, and prayed at the altar together. It is also a moment in American history that shows the active participation and involvement of Latino Americans with African Americans and Anglo Americans in the origins and rise of Pentecostalism in the U.S.

Third, African-American religious traditions and practices were central to the Azusa Revival and to the missions and denominations that followed it. At Azusa for at least three consecutive years, services were grounded in African-American orality and musicality. These traditions included enthusiastic worship and the singing of Negro spirituals which were influenced by African American theology, social practices, and church hymnody. Being conscious of these practices provides an understanding of the role of African-American religious traditions in influencing American Pentecostalism.