Bibliography supplied by Dr. Dan Woods:
Recommended Reading for Holiness-Pentecostal-Charismatic History
Daniel Woods – Summer 2026
Overview
Butler, Jon, with Grant Wacker and Randall Balmer. Religion in American Life: A Short History,
Updated Ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2008.
Hyatt, Eddie L. 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity. Lake Mary FL: Charisma House, 2002.
Kidd, Thomas S. America’s Religious History: Faith, Politics, and the Shaping of a Nation.
Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan, 2019.
Knight, Henry H., III. From Aldersgate to Azusa Street: Wesleyan, Holiness, and Pentecostal
Visions of the New Creation. Eugene OR: Pickwick, 2010.
Martin, David. Pentecostalism: The World Their Parish. Maiden MA: Blackwell, 2002.
Marty, Martin. The Christian World: A Global History. New York: Modern Library, 2007.
Pratney, Winkie. Revival: Principles to Change the World. Springdale PA: Whitaker House,
Synan, Vinson. The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic
Renewal, 1901-2001. Nashville TN: Thomas Nelson, 2001.
Synan, Vinson. The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition. Grand Rapids MI: William B. Eerdmans,
Tomkins, Stephen. A Short History of Christianity. Grand Rapids MI: William B. Eerdmans,
The Holiness Revival as a Reform Movement
Dieter, Melvin Easterday. The Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century, 2nd ed. Lanham MD:
Scarecrow Press, 1996.
Dieter, Melvin, ed. The 19th-Century Holiness Movement. Kansas City MO: Beacon Hill Press,
Hammond, Geordan. John Wesley in America: Restoring Primitive Christianity. Mew York:
Oxford UP, 2014).
Hempton, David. Methodism: Empire of the Spirit. New Haven CT: Yale UP, 2005.
Jones, Charles Edwin. Perfectionist Persuasion: The Holiness Movement and American
Methodism, 1867-1936. Metuchen NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1974.
Peters, John Leland. Christian Perfectionism and American Methodism. Grand Rapid MI:
Zondervan, 1985.
Smith, Timothy L. Revivalism and Social Reform in Mid-Nineteenth-Century America.
Nashville TN: Abingdon Press, 1957.
Stephens, Randall J. The Fire Spreads: Holiness and Pentecostalism in the American South.
Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 2008.
Turley, Briane K. A Wheel Within a Wheel: Southern Methodism and the Georgia Holiness
Association. Macon GA: Mercer UP, 1999.
Wigger, John H. Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in
America. Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press, 1998.
The Radical Holiness Movement, 1880-1905
Bundy, David, et al., eds. Holiness and Pentecostal Movements: Intertwined Pasts, Presents, and
Futures. University Park PA: Penn State UP, 2022. [See especially “Introduction” and essays by Alexander, Bundy, Oconer, Sanders, and Woods.]
Bundy, David. Visions of Apostolic Mission: Scandinavian Pentecostal Mission to 1935.
Uppsala, Sweden: Universitet, 2009.
Dayton, Donald W. Theological Roots of Pentecostalism. Peabody MA: Hendrickson, 1987.
Faupel, D. William. The Everlasting Gospel: The Significance of Eschatology in the
Development of Pentecostal Thought. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press,
1996.
Goff, James R., Jr., and Grant Wacker, eds., Portraits of a Generation: Early Pentecostal
Leaders. Fayetteville AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2002. [This particularly valuable prosopography focuses on the Radical Holiness backgrounds of Pentecostal forerunners and founders.]
Kostlevy, William, and Wallace Thornton, Jr., eds. The Radical Holiness Tradition in the
Christian Tradition. Lexington KY: Emeth, 2016.
Kostlevy, William. Holy Jumpers: Evangelicals and Radicals in Progressive Era America. New
York: Oxford UP. 2010.
Phillips, Wade H. Quest to Restore God’s House: A Theological History of the Church of God
(Cleveland, Tennessee): Volume 1, 1886-1932. Cleveland TN: CPT Press, 2014.
Pope-Levinson, Priscilla, Building the Old Time Religion: Women Evangelists in the Progressive
Era. New York: New York UP, 2014.
Synan, Vinson, and Daniel Woods. Fire-Baptized: The Many Lives and Works of Benjamin
Hardin Irwin. Lexington KY: Emeth, 2016.
The Cradle Years of the Pentecostal Movement
Alexander, Estrelda. The Women of Azusa Street. Cleveland OH: Pilgrim Press, 2005.
Anderson, Allan. Spreading Fires: The Missionary Nature of Early Pentecostalism. Maryknoll
NY: Orbis, 2007.
Anderson, Robert Mapes. Vision of the Disinherited: The Making of American Pentecostalism.
Peabody MA: Hendrickson MA, 1979.
Day, Keri. Azusa Reimagined: A Radical Vision of Religious and Democratic Longing. Stanford
CA: Stanford UP, 2022.
Giggie, John M. After Redemption: Jim Crow and the Transformation of African American
Religion in the Delta, 1875-1915. New York: Oxford UP, 2008.
Hollenweger, Walter J. The Pentecostals, 3rd ed. Peabody MA: Hendrickson, 1988.
Hunter Harold D., and Cecil M. Robeck. Jr., eds. The Azusa Street Legacy, Cleveland TN:
Pathway Press, 2006.
Land, Steven J. Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom. Sheffield, England:
Sheffield Academic, 1993.
McGhee, Gary B. Miracles, Missions, and American Pentecostalism. Maryknoll NY: Orbis,
Reed, David A. “In Jesus’ Name”: The History and Beliefs of Oneness Pentecostals. Blandford
Forum, Dorset (UK): Deo, 2008.
Robeck, Cecil M., Jr. The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth of the Global Pentecostal
Movement. Nashville TN: Nelson, 2006.
Tomlinson, Daniel. Snakes at the Altar: Serpent Handling in the Church of God. Cleveland TN:
[Privately printed], 2025.
Wacker, Grant. Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture. Cambridge MA:
Harvard UP, 2001.
Maturation of the Pentecostal Movement to 1960
Alexander, Estrelda Y., Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism.
Downers Grove IL: IVP Academic, 2011.
Alexander, Kimberly Ervin. Pentecostal Healing: Models in Theology and Practice. Blandford
Forum, Dorset (UK): Deo, 2006.
Blumhofer, Edith L. Restoring the Faith: The Assemblies of God, Pentecostalism, and American
Culture. Urbana IL: University of Illinois Press, 1993.
Jacobsen, Douglas, ed. A Reader in Pentecostal Theology. Bloomington IN: Indiana UP, 2006.
[More accessible—and to my mind helpful—than his larger study, Thinking in the Spirit: Theologies of the Early Pentecostal Movement (Indiana UP, 2003).]
King, Gerald W. Disfellowshiped: Pentecostal Responses to Fundamentalism in the United
States, 1906-1943. Eugene OR: Pickwick, 2011.
Mayfield, Alex R., The Kaleidoscopic City: Hong Kong, Mission, and the Evolution of Global
Pentecostalism. Waco TX: Baylor UP, 2023.
Payne, Leah. Gender and Pentecostal Revivalism: Making a Female Ministry in the Early
Twentieth Century. New York: Palgrave McMillan, 2015.
Stephens, Randall J. The Devil’s Music: How Christians Inspired, Condemned, and Embraced
Rock ‘n’ Roll. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 2018.
Sutton, Matthew Avery. Aimee Semple McPherson and the Resurrection of Christian America.
Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 2009.
Thornton, Wallace, Jr. Radical Holiness: Personal Ethics and the Development of the Holiness
Movement. Salem OH: Schmul, 1998.
White, Calvin, Jr. The Rise to Respectability: Race, Religion, and the Church of God in Christ.
Fayetteville AR: University of Arkansas Press, 2012.
Note on Biographies: There is a great need for more quality biographies of Pentecostal leaders. Two of the outstanding examples that we do have are Edith L. Blumhofer’s Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody’s Sister (Eerdmans, 1993) and Roger G. Robins’s A.J. Tomlinson: Plainfolk Modernist (Oxford UP, 2004). The IPHC is blessed to good biographies of several of its founders, e.g., Doug Beacham on G.B. Cashwell, David E. Harrell on Oral Roberts, Tony Moon on J.H. King, Harold Paul on Dan T. Muse, and H. Stanley York on G.F. Taylor.
Charismatic Renewal, 1950s-1980s
Blumhofer, Edith L. et al. Pentecostal Currents in American Protestantism. Urbana IL:
University of Illinois Press, 1999.
Griffith, R. Marie. God’s Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission. [On
Women Aglow.] Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 1997.
Harrell, David Edwin, Jr., All Things Are Possible: The Healing and Charismatic Revivals in
Modern America. Bloomington IN: Indiana UP, 1975. [See also his subsequent biographies of Oral Roberts and Pat Robertson.]
Johnson, Donna M. Holy Ghost Girl: A Memoir. New York: Gotham, 2011.
McGee, Gary B., ed. Initial Evidence: Historical and Biblical Perspectives on the Pentecostal
Doctrine of Spirit Baptism. Eugen OR: Wipf & Stock, 1991.
Maiden, John. Age of the Spirit: Charismatic Renewal, the Anglo-World, and Global
Christianity, 1945-1980. Oxford UK: Oxford UP, 2023.
Miller, Donald E. Reinventing American Protestantism: Christianity in the New Millenium [On
Calvary Chapel, Vineyard, and Hope Chapel.] Berkeley CA: University of California
Press, 1997).
Morgan, Dan. Rising in the West: The True Story of an “Okie” Family from the Great Depression
Through the Reagan Years. New York, Knopf, 1992.
Riss, Robert M. A Survey of 20th Century Revival Movements in North America. Peabody MA:
Hendrickson, 1988.
Shakarian, Demos (with John & Elisabeth Sherrill). The Happiest People on Earth. Old Tappan,
NJ: Revell, 1975.
Wigger, John H. PTL: The Rise and Fall of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker’s Evangelical Empire.
New York: Oxford UP, 2011.
Recent Developments in “the Third Wave”
Beacham, Doug. Rediscovering the Role of the Apostles and Prophets. Franklin Springs GA:
LifeSprings, 2003.
Corten, André, and Ruth Marshall-Fratani. Between Babel and Pentecost: Transnational
Pentecostalism in Africa and Latin America (Bloomington IN: Indiana UP, 2001).
Grady, J. Lee. Choose from these four titles: 10 Lies the Church Tells Women (2006), The Holy
Ghost is Not for Sale (2010), 10 Lies Men Believe (2011), What Happened to the Fire: Rekindling the Blaze of Charismatic Renewal (2019).
Lindhart, Martin. Pentecostalism in Africa: Presence and Impact of Pneumatic Christianity in
Postcolonial Societies (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2014).
McCrummen, Stephanie. “The Army of God Comes out of the Shadows.” The Atlantic (February
Pew Research Center. Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals (October 2006).
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2006/10/05/spirit-and-power/
Synan, Vinson, ed. The Truth about Grace: Spirit-Empowered Perspectives. Lake Mary FL:
Charisma House, 2018. [See also his two memoirs covering interactions with own Pentecostal Holiness heritage and the broader, burgeoning Charismatic Renewal: An Eyewitness Remembers the Century of the Holy Spirit (Baker, 2010); and, Where He Leads Me: The Vinson Synan Story (LifeSprings 2019).
Preparing to Carry Jacob’s Bones
Note on Denominational Histories: Most of our best Pentecostal denominational histories were written (or last updated) in the 1990s or early 2000s. Vinson Synan’s Old-Time Power: A History of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, for example, was last revised in 1998; the “definitive edition” of Charles Conn’s Like a Might Army: A History of the Church of God (Cleveland) came out in 1995; and, Gary McGee’s People of the Spirit: The Assemblies of God appeared in 2004. Our task, therefore, must include more than merely passing on the fine histories we read; additionally, we need to research and write about the last generation of our story—as well as take a fresh look at older events and topics. Without this work, meaningful connections between the past and the present will be difficult to make.
Other Resources:
Please visit our beliefs page for statements of belief.
According to Bishop Beacham, the most important text for shaping earlier beliefs is J. H. King’s, From Passover to Pentecost. This is available full text on our online library.
Next, the editorials of G. F. Taylor, found in the Advocate (the Pentecostal Consortium is where all issues of The Advocate are available full text) is a good way to see the beliefs that dominated the early to middle decades of our history.
Finally, the works of Noel Brooks clearly define our beliefs. His books are also available on our online library.
Consider reading: “How Can a Classical Pentecostal Church Reach a Contemporary World?
Lessons from the Past,” NCIPHC Heritage Lectures | October 18, 2025, Dr. Jonathan Altman. Read his lecture here.
Bishop A. Doug Beacham published a much needed resource: Light for the Journey: A Fresh Focus on Doctrine, Lifesprings, 2026.
As a member of the National Association of Evangelicals, the IPHC agrees with the NAE resolutions. However, our leadership has also developed position papers on other important topics.
IPHC Position Papers:
Apostolic Position Paper (Spanish)
Marriage and Sexual Morality (Spanish)
NAE Resolutions: