08 Review: Robinson, James, Pentecostal Origins

This is a solid contribution to the study of Pentecostalism from a series which features some stellar names. Interestingly, it is set within the study of evangelicalism, not always a place where Pentecostalism gets much of a ‘look in’. One can only hope that other titles with this focus will find their way into the Paternoster series. Certainly (as we shall see below) there is room for it. The company Pentecostal Origins keeps is both a help and a hindrance to the author. A strength of the book is its awareness of the other evangelical forerunners which contributed so much to the emergence of a particular form of Pentecostal culture in Ireland. Robinson’s ferreting out of connections with the Catholic Apostolic, Keswick, Brethren, Cooneyite, and other movements is inspirational in terms of laying a basis for the first organized Pentecostal groups in Ireland. Indeed, given the oral, fissiparous and mobile nature of Pentecostalism, it is almost the only way of doing decent intellectual history. Even so, we find here as in most Pentecostal historiography that the connections are tenuous and need to be filled in with speculation. Robinson shows a sympathetic and firm step when it comes to such reconstructive processes. On the other hand, a weakness of the book is its nod to the transatlantic evangelicalism which forms its company. The assumption is still that USA/Britain is the centre of the evangelical world, that Azusa Street is the (or at least a) beginning and needs to be referenced when lineages are drawn. Naturally, some assumptions have to be made in order to have a ‘beginning’. As the substance of this book shows, however, the beginning is much less linear than the Azusa Street hypothesis would suggest.

There is no doubt that this book will be of interest to anyone working in global Pentecostal studies. For an Australian researcher such as myself, for instance, it is wildly suggestive. The methods Robinson uses in tracking the ‘Children of the Revival’ could readily be extended to other places. It is clear that the Irish (1859, and indeed those of W P Nicholson, 1921-3) and Welsh revivals had significant knock-on effects on Australia and New Zealand – T L Evans springs to mind, but also Isabella Hetherington, Lydia Carberry, the unnamed Irish group which supported Maxwell Armstrong’s first church in Sydney. This links directly to the next observation, which is the suggestiveness of the focus of the study. Some years ago, Malcolm Prentis (Lucas 12, 1991) picked up on the theme of the ‘Celtic Fringe’ effect on North American Revivalism:

The research in Robinson’s book suggests that we should take Prentis seriously and look at the religious frontier which followed revivalistic evangelicalism, ie. Pentecostalism. Much has been written on the Afro-American origins of Pentecostalism, and it would not be politically correct to deny this. However, if Azusa Street is not the common origin point of global Pentecostalism (a point of view which is growing in strength as the rest of the world catches up to the massive output of the American publishing houses), we may find that there was another ethnic contributor parallel to the monastic contribution of the Middle Ages. Boddy, the Englishman, after all, was happy to remain an Anglican – it was the impact of the Scots Edward Irving (Catholic Apostolic) and John Alexander Dowie (Christian Catholic Apostolic), the Welshmen George Jeffreys (Elim) and Daniel Williams (Apostolic) which (except for the AOG) tended to produce Great Britain’s Pentecostal denominations. Some work I have been doing on the fractious Irish evangelist, Thomas Bingham Lennon, in Australia suggests such an ethnic impact on the willingness to not only feel the impact of the Holy Spirit, but to have the personal conviction to allow it to make a difference on an ecclesial level. The Ulster Irish in particular seem to have this trait: as Robinson notes with regard to Ulster Irish clerical language in general (ranging from Presbyterian across through Methodist and Pentecostal) there is a willingness to combine personal with spiritual force. Ulstermen, says Tom Paulin (quoted by Robinson, p.226) are "Feisty, restless, argumentative, never quite at home in this world…" Like W P Nicholson, they are "filled with vulgarity and the Holy Ghost", respecters of no man, no distance, no tradition. In short, they begin to sound like Prentis’ religious frontiersmen. Robinson himself does not have the space to make much of the implications that are evident in his research, beyond noting the comments by commentators on the tendency of the Welsh and Irish to take their feelings to extremes. He does, however, do worthwhile prosopographical work on people such as Robert Semple, Robert Brown, William Arthur and others who made a global impact through the holiness and Pentecostal movements. He also explores the fact of Ireland as a real religious frontier (involving both cultural and physical warfare through the period he covers), a mental world which was no doubt taken abroad by its feisty citizens. There are hints in the work to what else may be done. The Welsh character, noted T M Jeffreys, ‘lacks restraint’ (p.82). The work still needs to be done, but a thorough exploration of the contribution of the Celtic fringe to global Pentecostalism is awaiting some venturesome PhD student. I would suggest that studies of language (how do Celtic language communities contribute to English dialects which may be more flexible in their expression of spiritual realities than nominalist English culture) and music (parallel to the studies that are being done with regard to the ties between Jazz, black culture and Pentecostalism elsewhere in the world) would be two interesting additional domains to those studied by Robinson. It may not only turn out to be that the Irish are great ‘vulgar’ preachers (because of the influence of Celtic underpinnings, fringe marginalization, the impact of 1859 and reformed thought), but it may also turn out that the musicality of Welsh and Irish culture contributes to the types of Pentecostalism which emerge. I think here of T B Lennon’s Songs That Inspire, or of William Booth-Clibborn (son of the great Irish Quaker/Salvationist, A S Booth-Clibborn) thrilling the crowds who gathered in his great tent meetings on Barry Parade in Brisbane. There are enough parallels (for instance, between the vision of Cyril Taylor in Ireland, and that of the Irish Isabella Hetherington, both of which send them out to do significant work among African and Aboriginal peoples) to also suggest that the nature and expression of ‘vision’ in Celtic and English cultures be explored. The nature of the family connections is also suggestive. Edward Irving’s son came to Australia, but no-one, as far as I know, has explored his religious views. A central character in Robinson’s book is Thomas Hackett, whose brother, J W Hackett, migrated to Western Australia and (as a newspaper proprietor and benefactor) became a major contributor to culture, to religion and to politics. His religious thought is similarly untested for its contribution to the larger story of religious change in Australia.

Another area where Robinson’s work is highly suggestive is in the exploration of the roots of the modern charismatic movement. The cultures of let and restraint which hold charismatic expressions in traditional forms without extinguishing them are explored here, and many of the names explored. The existence of a Cecil Polhill and an Anglo-Irish ascendancy which could fund early Pentecostalism and wrap it in respectability made for increased ecumenism in Britain. Does the lack of such sympathy in a non-philanthropic culture in Australia mean the opposite, ie. increased sectarianism? Certain elements, such as the relative strength of the holiness movement, must also be considerations in the writing of such a story.

There are, of course, the inevitable blemishes in a work which spans so much material, and has obviously taken years to put together. The prosopographical approach lends to repetition as characters wind in an out of the story (several times we are re-introduced to characters we have met earlier, or told that Aimee Semple was in fact to become Aimee Semple McPherson long after we have already been told her story earlier in the book). There is confusion over the use of apostrophes to indicate the possessive and the plural (refer to the wonderful site http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/), and a number of editing oversights which might indicate the speed with which books in general are brought to press these days (you’ll find plenty of them in thus, errr, this journal too, no doubt!). The final chapter – which goes on a perambulating overview of the whole world of Pentecostalism, before ending in a bit of a sermon – is puzzling in parts, particularly as it is the ethno-geographical focus of the book which provides it with its motivating power. The index is not entirely useless, but overlooks many of the smaller players who give the book its interest. All this said, however, books are what they are – and this is a very useful one indeed. The author is to be congratulated for his signal contribution to an expanding field.

Mark Hutchinson