A.A. Allen: “God’s Man of Faith and Power”

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 One of the many obsessive habits that befall academics who live with their subjects too long is we get to know way too much about them, learning everything we can, visiting their birthplaces, where they are buried, interviewing people, all in an attempt to say we have uncovered as much as we can about said person. A.A. Allen is one of those people whom I have lived with for years and can’t seem to shake.  In the second installment of a summer trip through my latest and upcoming book, … [Read more...]

Corazón Sagrado meets El Espíritu Santo

Santo Niño Prayer Chapel

On my way back from my one-year stint at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, I stopped by El Santuario de Chimayo--the most famous healing shrine in the U.S. http://www.elsantuariodechimayo.us/ Visiting a healing shrine was the last item on my agenda, since I had been talking about healing for weeks at Perkins. The idea that healing is part of the Christian tradition across most denominations, the selective nature of healing--and how healing itself is culturally bound by what we are taught … [Read more...]

Pentecostalism’s Long Road To Ruin?

         I have not attended a Society for Pentecostal Studies (SPS) meeting in 4 years.I resigned from the society before I became president in 2009. This society is where I first met many of my colleagues, whom I sure wonder from time to time—“just what kind of Pentecostal are you?” That’s fine; I like to keep people guessing. I will not reiterate why I left that society but it seems that the long game some traditionalists have to use the society to ferret out the theologically … [Read more...]

Happy Easter–Culture War Is Over-If You Want It

There is so much one can and normally does for a traditional Easter post--I'll spare you that. For Easter and Christmas I ask for and so far have yet to see the end of the culture wars--to which I would say I am a conscientious objector in what amounts to a religious nationalism masquerading as theological certainty, but that is for another time. Next time I'll write about the apocalyptic language some of my brethren are deploying to grasp some sense of what is now and will be in the … [Read more...]

Happy Easter-Culture War is Over If You Want It

There is so much one can and normally does for a traditional Easter post--I'll spare you that. For Easter and Christmas I ask for and so far have yet to see the end of the culture wars--to which I would say I am a conscientious objector in what amounts to a religious nationalism masquerading as theological certainty, but that is for another time. Next time I'll write about the apocalyptic language some of my brethren are deploying to grasp some sense of what is now and will be in the … [Read more...]

Will (white) evangelicals veer left? Who cares?

There has been continued interest in the political behavior of evangelicals over the past few weeks. This discussion assumes that everyone who carries that mantle is white, and conservative, and that they read blogs about themselves, you would not know that there are any other demographic groups that comprise American evangelicalism other than whites if you cared to read the prognostications--and increasingly--I don't care. Simultaneously, a discussion on the politics of Latino/a evangelicals … [Read more...]

Memories of San Antonio

Memories of San Antonio

Occasionally, I want to open this space up to fellow travelers/colleagues/friends/brethren--and in this case, una hermana, a Tejana whose roots in the Pentecostal movement makes her voice unique and necessary--Erica Ramirez is a Ph.D student at Drew University, is quite an accomplished singer, and as I hope you'll agree--one of the future stars in our constellation of Latina/o religion scholars... Bienvenidos Erica Iam a third generation Pentecostal woman, a Latina born in San Antonio.  … [Read more...]

Watching Joel Osteen

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As part of my farewell to Texas tour, I made a pilgrimage to the Pentecostal mecca--the largest church in the U.S., Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church.  I have visited  hundreds of Pentecostal churches--as a researcher and as a worshipper, but for some reason, I was really looking forward to visiting Lakewood:  For one, Joel Osteen is one of the most fascinating figures in contemporary Pentecostalism, and the multicultural make-up of Lakewood, over 20,000 strong this past Sunday, was quite … [Read more...]

Welcome to the Occupation

Arlene M. Sánchez Walsh

Well that went fast! Conference season is over for me. I attend two with regularity, and I try to present at one of the them if I have any new material I am working on--for me, conferences are similar to when comedians take their new material to smaller clubs, trying it out on audiences first, refining, editing, working on timing, all before the next HBO special, or sitcom pilot. This is the fun part of a conference, the working out of material, the endless streams of conversations--what are you … [Read more...]

Be Here Now

Arlene M. Sánchez Walsh

Customary Top 10 lists--wishes for peace, resolutions, funny, sobering, irreverent, I admit to liking them--I have little time to read them, but I like them nevertheless. I am also working on an academic deadline, which, aside from a busy life being professor mom, means that I especially love those top 10 lists and resolutions that call for people to "slow" down their lives.  Never mind...here's the Top Ten things I'd like to see my evangelical/Pentecostal brethren do more often in 2013. 10. … [Read more...]