title: Thomas More

text: Martin Luther then attacked Henry VIII in print, calling him a "pig, dolt, and liar". At the king's request, More composed a rebuttal: the "Responsio ad Lutherum" was published at the end of 1523. In the "Responsio", More defended papal supremacy, the sacraments, and other Church traditions. More, though considered "a much steadier personality", described Luther as an "ape", a "drunkard", and a "lousy little friar" amongst other epithets. Writing under the pseudonym of Gulielmus Rosseus, More tells Luther that:


title: Thomas More

text: His saying is followed with a kind of apology to his readers, while Luther possibly never apologized for his sayings. Stephen Greenblatt argues, "More speaks for his ruler and in his opponent's idiom; Luther speaks for himself, and his scatological imagery far exceeds in quantity, intensity, and inventiveness anything that More could muster. If for More scatology normally expresses a communal disapproval, for Luther, it expresses a deep personal rage."


title: Thomas More

text: Confronting Luther confirmed More's theological conservatism. He thereafter avoided any hint of criticism of Church authority. In 1528, More published another religious polemic, "A Dialogue Concerning Heresies", that asserted the Catholic Church was the one true church, established by Christ and the Apostles, and affirmed the validity of its authority, traditions and practices. In 1529, the circulation of Simon Fish's "Supplication for the Beggars" prompted More to respond with the "Supplycatyon of Soulys".


title: Thomas More

text: In 1531, a year after More's father died, William Tyndale published "An Answer unto Sir Thomas More's Dialogue" in response to More's "Dialogue Concerning Heresies." More responded with a half million words: the "Confutation of Tyndale's Answer". The "Confutation" is an imaginary dialogue between More and Tyndale, with More addressing each of Tyndale's criticisms of Catholic rites and doctrines. More, who valued structure, tradition and order in society as safeguards against tyranny and error, vehemently believed that Lutheranism and the Protestant Reformation in general were dangerous, not only to the Catholic faith but to the stability of society as a whole.


title: Thomas More

text: Most major humanists were prolific letter writers, and Thomas More was no exception. As in the case of his friend Erasmus of Rotterdam, however, only a small portion of his correspondence (about 280 letters) survived. These include everything from personal letters to official government correspondence (mostly in English), letters to fellow humanist scholars (in Latin), several epistolary tracts, verse epistles, prefatory letters (some fictional) to several of More's own works, letters to More's children and their tutors (in Latin), and the so-called "prison-letters" (in English) which he exchanged with his oldest daughter Margaret while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London awaiting execution. More also engaged in controversies, most notably with the French poet Germain de Brie, which culminated in the publication of de Brie's "Antimorus" (1519). Erasmus intervened, however, and ended the dispute.


title: Thomas More

text: More also wrote about more spiritual matters. They include: "A Treatise on the Passion" (a.k.a. Treatise on the Passion of Christ), "A Treatise to Receive the Blessed Body" (a.k.a. Holy Body Treaty), and "De Tristitia Christi" (a.k.a. The Agony of Christ). More handwrote the last in the Tower of London while awaiting his execution. This last manuscript, saved from the confiscation decreed by Henry VIII, passed by the will of his daughter Margaret to Spanish hands through Fray Pedro de Soto, confessor of Emperor Charles V. More's friend Luis Vives received it in Valencia, where it remains in the collection of Real Colegio Seminario del Corpus Christi museum.


title: Thomas More

text: Pope Leo XIII beatified Thomas More, John Fisher, and 52 other English Martyrs on 29 December 1886. Pope Pius XI canonised More and Fisher on 19 May 1935, and More's feast day was established as 9 July. Since 1970 the General Roman Calendar has celebrated More with St John Fisher on 22 June (the date of Fisher's execution). On 31 October 2000 Pope John Paul II declared More "the heavenly Patron of Statesmen and Politicians". More is the patron of the German Catholic youth organisation Katholische Junge Gemeinde.


title: Thomas More

text: In 1980, despite their opposition to the English Reformation, More and Fisher were added as martyrs of the reformation to the Church of England's calendar of "Saints and Heroes of the Christian Church", to be commemorated every 6 July (the date of More's execution) as "Thomas More, scholar, and John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, Reformation Martyrs, 1535". The annual remembrance of 6 July, is recognized by all Anglican Churches in communion with Canterbury, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, and South Africa.


title: Thomas More

text: In an essay examining the events around the addition to the Anglican calendar, Scholar William Sheils links the reasoning for More's recognition to a "long-standing tradition hinted at in Rose Macaulay's ironic debating point of 1935 about More's status as an 'unschismed Anglican', a tradition also recalled in the annual memorial lecture held at St. Dunstan's Church in Canterbury, where More's head is said to be buried." Sheils also noted the influence of the 1960s popular play and film "A Man for All Seasons" which gave More a 'reputation as a defender of the right of conscience". Thanks to the play's depiction, this "brought his life to a broader and more popular audience" with the film "extending its impact worldwide following the Oscar triumphs". Around this time the atheist Oxford historian and public intellectual, Hugh Trevor-Roper held More up as "the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of Humanists...the universal man of our cool northern Renaissance." By 1978, the quincentenary of More's birth Trevor-Roper wrote an essay putting More in the Renaissance Platonist tradition, and claim his reputation was "quite independent of his Catholicism." (Only, later on, did a more critical view arise in academia, led by Professor Sir Geoffrey Elton, which "challenged More's reputation for saintliness by focusing on his dealings with heretics, the ferocity of which, in fairness to him, More did not deny. In this research, More's role as a prosecutor, or persecutor, of dissidents has been at the center of the debate.")


title: Thomas More

text: The steadfastness and courage with which More maintained his religious convictions, and his dignity during his imprisonment, trial, and execution, contributed much to More's posthumous reputation, particularly among Roman Catholics. His friend Erasmus defended More's character as "more pure than any snow" and described his genius as "such as England never had and never again will have." Upon learning of More's execution, Emperor Charles V said: "Had we been master of such a servant, we would rather have lost the best city of our dominions than such a worthy councillor."


title: Thomas More

text: G. K. Chesterton, a Roman Catholic convert from the Church of England, predicted More "may come to be counted the greatest Englishman, or at least the greatest historical character in English history." Hugh Trevor-Roper called More "the first great Englishman whom we feel that we know, the most saintly of humanists, the most human of saints, the universal man of our cool northern renaissance."


title: Thomas More

text: Jonathan Swift, an Anglican, wrote that More was "a person of the greatest virtue this kingdom ever produced". Some consider Samuel Johnson that quote's author, although neither his writings nor Boswell's contain such. The metaphysical poet John Donne, also honoured as a hero by Anglicans, was More's great-great-nephew. US Senator Eugene McCarthy had a portrait of More in his office.


title: Thomas More

text: Roman Catholic scholars maintain that More used irony in "Utopia", and that he remained an orthodox Christian. Marxist theoreticians such as Karl Kautsky considered the book a critique of economic and social exploitation in pre-modern Europe and More is claimed to have influenced the development of socialist ideas.


title: Thomas More

text: "Sir Thomas More" is a play written circa 1592 in collaboration between Henry Chettle, Anthony Munday, William Shakespeare, and others. In it More is portrayed as a wise and honest statesman. The original manuscript has survived as a handwritten text that shows many revisions by its several authors, as well as the censorious influence of Edmund Tylney, Master of the Revels in the government of Queen Elizabeth I. The script has since been published and has had several productions.


title: Thomas More

text: The 20th-century agnostic playwright Robert Bolt portrayed Thomas More as the tragic hero of his 1960 play "A Man for All Seasons". The title is drawn from what Robert Whittington in 1520 wrote of More:


title: Thomas More

text: More is a man of an angel's wit and singular learning. I know not his fellow. For where is the man of that gentleness, lowliness and affability? And, as time requireth, a man of marvelous mirth and pastimes, and sometime of as sad gravity. A man for all seasons.


title: Thomas More

text: In 1966, the play "A Man for All Seasons" was adapted into a film with the same title. It was directed by Fred Zinnemann and adapted for the screen by the playwright. It stars Paul Scofield, a noted British actor, who said that the part of Sir Thomas More was "the most difficult part I played." The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Scofield won the Best Actor Oscar. In 1988 Charlton Heston starred in and directed a made-for-television film that restored the character of "the common man" that had been cut from the 1966 film.


title: Thomas More

text: Catholic science fiction writer R. A. Lafferty wrote his novel "Past Master" as a modern equivalent to More's "Utopia", which he saw as a satire. In this novel, Thomas More travels through time to the year 2535, where he is made king of the world "Astrobe", only to be beheaded after ruling for a mere nine days. One character compares More favourably to almost every other major historical figure: "He had one completely honest moment right at the end. I cannot think of anyone else who ever had one."


title: Thomas More

text: Karl Zuchardt's novel, "Stirb du Narr!" ("Die you fool!"), about More's struggle with King Henry, portrays More as an idealist bound to fail in the power struggle with a ruthless ruler and an unjust world.


title: Thomas More

text: In her 2009 novel "Wolf Hall", its 2012 sequel "Bring Up the Bodies", and the final book of the trilogy, her 2020 "The Mirror and the Light", the novelist Hilary Mantel portrays More (from the perspective of a sympathetically portrayed Thomas Cromwell) as an unsympathetic persecutor of Protestants and an ally of the Habsburg empire.


title: Thomas More

text: Literary critic James Wood in his book "The Broken Estate", a collection of essays, is critical of More and refers to him as "cruel in punishment, evasive in argument, lusty for power, and repressive in politics".


title: Thomas More

text: Aaron Zelman's non-fiction book "The State Versus the People" includes a comparison of "Utopia" with Plato's "Republic". Zelman is undecided as to whether More was being ironic in his book or was genuinely advocating a police state. Zelman comments, "More is the only Christian saint to be honoured with a statue at the Kremlin." By this Zelman implies that "Utopia" influenced Vladimir Lenin's Bolsheviks, despite their brutal repression of religion.


title: Thomas More

text: Other biographers, such as Peter Ackroyd, have offered a more sympathetic picture of More as both a sophisticated philosopher and man of letters, as well as a zealous Catholic who believed in the authority of the Holy See over Christendom.


title: Thomas More

text: The protagonist of Walker Percy's novels, "Love in the Ruins" and "The Thanatos Syndrome", is "Dr Thomas More", a reluctant Catholic and descendant of More.


title: Thomas More

text: More is the focus of the Al Stewart song "A Man For All Seasons" from the 1978 album "Time Passages", and of the Far song "Sir", featured on the limited editions and 2008 re-release of their 1994 album "Quick". In addition, the song "So Says I" by indie rock outfit The Shins alludes to the socialist interpretation of More's "Utopia".


title: Thomas More

text: Jeremy Northam depicts More in the television series "The Tudors "as a peaceful man, as well as a devout Roman Catholic and loving family patriarch. He also shows More loathing Protestantism, burning both Martin Luther's books and English Protestants who have been convicted of heresy. The portrayal has unhistorical aspects, such as that More neither personally caused nor attended Simon Fish's execution (since Fish actually died of bubonic plague in 1531 before he could stand trial), although More's "The Supplication of Souls", published in October 1529, addressed Fish's . Indeed, there is no evidence that More ever attended the execution of any heretic. The series also neglected to show More's avowed insistence that Richard Rich's testimony about More disputing the King's title as Supreme Head of the Church of England was perjured.


title: Thomas More

text: In the years 1968–2007 the University of San Francisco's Gleeson Library Associates awarded the annual Sir Thomas More Medal for Book Collecting to private book collectors of note, including Elmer Belt, Otto Schaefer, Albert Sperisen, John S. Mayfield and Lord Wardington.


title: Thomas More

text: Having been praised "as a Communist hero by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, and Karl Kautsky" because of the Communist attitude to property in his "Utopia", under Soviet Communism the name of Thomas More was in ninth position from the top of Moscow's Stele of Freedom (also known as the Obelisk of Revolutionary Thinkers), as one of the most influential thinkers "who promoted the liberation of humankind from oppression, arbitrariness, and exploitation." This monument was erected in 1918 in Aleksandrovsky Garden near the Kremlin at Lenin's suggestion.


title: Thomas More

text: "The Great Soviet Encyclopedia"'s English translation (1979) described More as "the founder of Utopian socialism", the first person "to describe a society in which private property ... had been abolished" (a society in which the family was "a cell for the communist way of life"), and a thinker who "did not believe that the ideal society would be achieved through revolution", but who "greatly influenced reformers of subsequent centuries, especially Morelly, G. Babeuf, Saint-Simon, C. Fourier, E. Cabet, and other representatives of Utopian socialism."


title: Thomas More

text: Many see More's communism or socialism as purely satirical. In 1888, while praising More's communism, Karl Kautsky pointed out that "perplexed" historians and economists often saw the name "Utopia" (which means "no place") as "a subtle hint by More that he himself regarded his communism as an impracticable dream".


title: Thomas More

text: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Russian Nobel Prize-winning, anti-Communist author of "The Gulag Archipelago", argued that Soviet communism needed enslavement and forced labour to survive, and that this had been " ...foreseen as far back as Thomas More, the great-grandfather of socialism, in his "Utopia"".


title: Thomas More

text: In 2008, More was portrayed on stage in Hong Kong as an allegorical symbol of the pan-democracy camp resisting the Chinese Communist Party in a translated and modified version of Robert Bolt's play "A Man for All Seasons".


title: Thomas More

text: A plaque in the middle of the floor of London's Westminster Hall commemorates More's trial for treason and condemnation to execution in that original part of the Palace of Westminster. The building, which houses Parliament, would have been well known to More, who served several terms as a member and became Speaker of the House of Commons before his appointment as England's Lord Chancellor.


title: Thomas More

text: As More's royal duties frequently required his attendance at the king's Thames-side palaces in both Richmond and Greenwich, it was convenient to select a riverside property situated between them (the common method of transport being by boat) for his home. In about 1520 he purchased a parcel of land comprising "undisturbed wood and pasture", stretching from the Thames in Chelsea to the present-day King's Road. There he caused to be built a dignified red-brick mansion (known simply as More's house or Chelsea House) in which he lived until his arrest in 1534. In the bawdy poem "The Twelve Mery Jestes of Wyddow Edyth", written in 1525 by a member of More's household (or even by More himself) using the pseudonym of "Walter Smith", the widow arrives by boat at "Chelsay…where she had best cheare of all/in the house of Syr Thomas More."


title: Thomas More

text: Upon More's arrest the estate was confiscated, coming into the possession of the Comptroller of the Royal Household, William Paulet.


title: Thomas More

text: In June 1523 More bought the "very large and beautiful" Crosby Place (Crosby Hall) in Bishopsgate, London, but this was not a simple transaction: eight months later he sold the property (never having lived there) at a considerable profit to his friend and business partner Antonio Bonvisi who, in turn, leased it back to More's son-in-law William Roper and nephew William Rastell; possibly this was an agreed means of dealing with a debt between More and Bonvisi. Because of this the Crown did not confiscate the property after More's execution.


title: Thomas More

text: Across a small park and Old Church Street from Crosby Hall is Chelsea Old Church, an Anglican church whose southern chapel More commissioned and in which he sang with the parish choir. Except for his chapel, the church was largely destroyed in the Second World War and rebuilt in 1958. The capitals on the medieval arch connecting the chapel to the main sanctuary display symbols associated with More and his office. On the southern wall of the sanctuary is the tomb and epitaph he erected for himself and his wives, detailing his ancestry and accomplishments in Latin, including his role as peacemaker between the various Christian European states as well as a curiously altered portion about his curbing heresy. When More served Mass, he would leave by the door just to the left of it. He is not, however, buried here, nor is it entirely certain which of his family may be. It is open to the public at specific times. Outside the church, facing the River Thames, is a statue by L. Cubitt Bevis erected in 1969, commemorating More as "saint", "scholar", and "statesman"; the back displays his coat-of-arms. Nearby, on Upper Cheyne Row, the Roman Catholic Church of Our Most Holy Redeemer & St. Thomas More honours the martyr.


title: Thomas More

text: A plaque and small garden commemorate the famed execution site on Tower Hill, London, just outside the Tower of London, as well as all those executed there, many as religious martyrs or as prisoners of conscience. More's corpse, minus his head, was unceremoniously buried in an unmarked mass grave beneath the Royal Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula, within the walls of the Tower of London, as was the custom for traitors executed at Tower Hill. The chapel is accessible to Tower visitors.


title: Thomas More

text: Thomas More is commemorated by a stone plaque near St Katharine Docks, just east of the Tower where he was executed. The street in which it is situated was formerly called Nightingale Lane, a corruption of "Knighten Guild", derived from the original owners of the land. It is now renamed Thomas More Street in his honour.


title: Thomas More

text: St Dunstan's Church, an Anglican parish church in Canterbury, possesses More's head, rescued by his daughter Margaret Roper, whose family lived in Canterbury down and across the street from their parish church. A stone immediately to the left of the altar marks the sealed Roper family vault beneath the Nicholas Chapel, itself to the right of the church's sanctuary or main altar. St Dunstan's Church has carefully investigated, preserved and sealed this burial vault. The last archaeological investigation revealed that the suspected head of More rests in a niche separate from the other bodies, possibly from later interference. Displays in the chapel record the archaeological findings in pictures and narratives. Roman Catholics donated stained glass to commemorate the events in More's life. A small plaque marks the former home of William and Margaret Roper; another house nearby and entitled Roper House is now a home for deaf people.


title: Thomas More

text: Note: The reference "CW" is to the relevant volume of the "Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More" (New Haven and London 1963–1997)


title: Pentecostalism

text: Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement that emphasizes direct personal experience of God through baptism with the Holy Spirit. The term "Pentecostal" is derived from Pentecost, an event that commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus Christ while they were in Jerusalem celebrating the Feast of Weeks, as described in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2:1–31).


title: Pentecostalism

text: Like other forms of evangelical Protestantism, Pentecostalism adheres to the inerrancy of the Bible and the necessity of the New Birth: an individual repenting of their sin and "accepting Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior". It is distinguished by belief in the "baptism in the Holy Spirit" that enables a Christian to "live a Spirit-filled and empowered life". This empowerment includes the use of spiritual gifts: such as speaking in tongues and divine healing. Because of their commitment to biblical authority, spiritual gifts, and the miraculous, Pentecostals see their movement as reflecting the same kind of spiritual power and teachings that were found in the Apostolic Age of the Early Church. For this reason, some Pentecostals also use the term "Apostolic" or "Full Gospel" to describe their movement.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Holiness Pentecostalism emerged in the early 20th century among radical adherents of the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, who were energized by Christian revivalism and expectation for the imminent Second Coming of Christ. Believing that they were living in the end times, they expected God to spiritually renew the Christian Church, and bring to pass the restoration of spiritual gifts and the evangelization of the world. In 1900, Charles Parham, an American evangelist and faith healer, began teaching that speaking in tongues was the Bible evidence of Spirit baptism. Along with William J. Seymour, a Wesleyan-Holiness preacher, he taught that this was the third work of grace. The three-year-long Azusa Street Revival, founded and led by Seymour in Los Angeles, California, resulted in the growth of Pentecostalism throughout the United States and the rest of the world. Visitors carried the Pentecostal experience back to their home churches or felt called to the mission field. While virtually all Pentecostal denominations trace their origins to Azusa Street, the movement has had several divisions and controversies. Early disputes centered on challenges to the doctrine of entire sanctification, as well as that of the Trinity. As a result, the Pentecostal movement is divided between Holiness Pentecostals who affirm the second work of grace, and Finished Work Pentecostals who are partitioned into trinitarian and non-trinitarian branches, the latter giving rise to Oneness Pentecostalism.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Comprising over 700 denominations and many independent churches, Pentecostalism is highly decentralized. No central authority exists, but many denominations are affiliated with the Pentecostal World Fellowship. With over 279 million classical Pentecostals worldwide, the movement is growing in many parts of the world, especially the Global South and Third World countries. Since the 1960s, Pentecostalism has increasingly gained acceptance from other Christian traditions, and Pentecostal beliefs concerning the baptism of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts have been embraced by non-Pentecostal Christians in Protestant and Catholic churches through their adherence to the Charismatic movement. Together, worldwide Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity numbers over 644 million adherents. While the movement originally attracted mostly lower classes in the global South, there is a new appeal to middle classes. Middle-class congregations tend to have fewer members. Pentecostalism is believed to be the fastest-growing religious movement in the world.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Early Pentecostals have considered the movement a latter-day restoration of the church's apostolic power, and historians such as Cecil M. Robeck, Jr. and Edith Blumhofer write that the movement emerged from late 19th-century radical evangelical revival movements in America and in Great Britain.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Within this radical evangelicalism, expressed most strongly in the Wesleyan–holiness and Higher Life movements, themes of restorationism, premillennialism, faith healing, and greater attention on the person and work of the Holy Spirit were central to emerging Pentecostalism. Believing that the second coming of Christ was imminent, these Christians expected an endtime revival of apostolic power, spiritual gifts, and miracle-working. Figures such as Dwight L. Moody and R. A. Torrey began to speak of an experience available to all Christians which would empower believers to evangelize the world, often termed "baptism with the Holy Spirit".


title: Pentecostalism

text: Certain Christian leaders and movements had important influences on early Pentecostals. The essentially universal belief in the continuation of all the spiritual gifts in the Keswick and Higher Life movements constituted a crucial historical background for the rise of Pentecostalism. Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843–1919) and his Christian and Missionary Alliance (founded in 1887) was very influential in the early years of Pentecostalism, especially on the development of the Assemblies of God. Another early influence on Pentecostals was John Alexander Dowie (1847–1907) and his Christian Catholic Apostolic Church (founded in 1896). Pentecostals embraced the teachings of Simpson, Dowie, Adoniram Judson Gordon (1836–1895) and Maria Woodworth-Etter (1844–1924; she later joined the Pentecostal movement) on healing. Edward Irving's Catholic Apostolic Church (founded c. 1831) also displayed many characteristics later found in the Pentecostal revival.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Isolated Christian groups were experiencing charismatic phenomena such as divine healing and speaking in tongues. The holiness movement provided a theological explanation for what was happening to these Christians, and they adapted Wesleyan soteriology to accommodate their new understanding.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Charles Fox Parham, an independent holiness evangelist who believed strongly in divine healing, was an important figure to the emergence of Pentecostalism as a distinct Christian movement. In 1900, he started a school near Topeka, Kansas, which he named Bethel Bible School. There he taught that speaking in tongues was the scriptural evidence for the reception of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. On January 1, 1901, after a watch night service, the students prayed for and received the baptism with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Parham received this same experience sometime later and began preaching it in all his services. Parham believed this was xenoglossia and that missionaries would no longer need to study foreign languages. After 1901, Parham closed his Topeka school and began a four-year revival tour throughout Kansas and Missouri. He taught that the baptism with the Holy Spirit was a third experience, subsequent to conversion and sanctification. Sanctification cleansed the believer, but Spirit baptism empowered for service.


title: Pentecostalism

text: At about the same time that Parham was spreading his doctrine of initial evidence in the Midwestern United States, news of the Welsh Revival of 1904–05 ignited intense speculation among radical evangelicals around the world and particularly in the US of a coming move of the Spirit which would renew the entire Christian Church. This revival saw thousands of conversions and also exhibited speaking in tongues.


title: Pentecostalism

text: In 1905, Parham moved to Houston, Texas, where he started a Bible training school. One of his students was William J. Seymour, a one-eyed black preacher. Seymour traveled to Los Angeles where his preaching sparked the three-year-long Azusa Street Revival in 1906. The revival first broke out on Monday April 9, 1906 at 214 Bonnie Brae Street and then moved to 312 Azusa Street on Friday, April 14, 1906. Worship at the racially integrated Azusa Mission featured an absence of any order of service. People preached and testified as moved by the Spirit, spoke and sung in tongues, and fell in the Spirit. The revival attracted both religious and secular media attention, and thousands of visitors flocked to the mission, carrying the "fire" back to their home churches. Despite the work of various Wesleyan groups such as Parham's and D. L. Moody's revivals, the beginning of the widespread Pentecostal movement in the US is generally considered to have begun with Seymour's Azusa Street Revival.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The crowds of African-Americans and whites worshiping together at William Seymour's Azusa Street Mission set the tone for much of the early Pentecostal movement. During the period of 1906–24, Pentecostals defied social, cultural and political norms of the time that called for racial segregation and the enactment of Jim Crow laws. The Church of God in Christ, the Church of God (Cleveland), the Pentecostal Holiness Church, and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World were all interracial denominations before the 1920s. These groups, especially in the Jim Crow South were under great pressure to conform to segregation. Ultimately, North American Pentecostalism would divide into white and African-American branches. Though it never entirely disappeared, interracial worship within Pentecostalism would not reemerge as a widespread practice until after the civil rights movement.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Women were vital to the early Pentecostal movement. Believing that whoever received the Pentecostal experience had the responsibility to use it towards the preparation for Christ's second coming, Pentecostal women held that the baptism in the Holy Spirit gave them empowerment and justification to engage in activities traditionally denied to them. The first person at Parham's Bible college to receive Spirit baptism with the evidence of speaking in tongues was a woman, Agnes Ozman. Women such as Florence Crawford, Ida Robinson, and Aimee Semple McPherson founded new denominations, and many women served as pastors, co-pastors, and missionaries. Women wrote religious songs, edited Pentecostal papers, and taught and ran Bible schools. The unconventionally intense and emotional environment generated in Pentecostal meetings dually promoted, and was itself created by, other forms of participation such as personal testimony and spontaneous prayer and singing. Women did not shy away from engaging in this forum, and in the early movement the majority of converts and church-goers were female. Nevertheless, there was considerable ambiguity surrounding the role of women in the church. The subsiding of the early Pentecostal movement allowed a socially more conservative approach to women to settle in, and, as a result, female participation was channeled into more supportive and traditionally accepted roles. Auxiliary women's organizations were created to focus women's talents on more traditional activities. Women also became much more likely to be evangelists and missionaries than pastors. When they were pastors, they often co-pastored with their husbands.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The majority of early Pentecostal denominations taught Christian pacifism and adopted military service articles that advocated conscientious objection.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Azusa participants returned to their homes carrying their new experience with them. In many cases, whole churches were converted to the Pentecostal faith, but many times Pentecostals were forced to establish new religious communities when their experience was rejected by the established churches. One of the first areas of involvement was the African continent, where, by 1907, American missionaries were established in Liberia, as well as in South Africa by 1908. Because speaking in tongues was initially believed to always be actual foreign languages, it was believed that missionaries would no longer have to learn the languages of the peoples they evangelized because the Holy Spirit would provide whatever foreign language was required. (When the majority of missionaries, to their disappointment, learned that tongues speech was unintelligible on the mission field, Pentecostal leaders were forced to modify their understanding of tongues.) Thus, as the experience of speaking in tongues spread, a sense of the immediacy of Christ's return took hold and that energy would be directed into missionary and evangelistic activity. Early Pentecostals saw themselves as outsiders from mainstream society, dedicated solely to preparing the way for Christ's return.


title: Pentecostalism

text: An associate of Seymour's, Florence Crawford, brought the message to the Northwest, forming what would become the Apostolic Faith Church—a Holiness Pentecostal denomination—by 1908. After 1907, Azusa participant William Howard Durham, pastor of the North Avenue Mission in Chicago, returned to the Midwest to lay the groundwork for the movement in that region. It was from Durham's church that future leaders of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada would hear the Pentecostal message. One of the most well known Pentecostal pioneers was Gaston B. Cashwell (the "Apostle of Pentecost" to the South), whose evangelistic work led three Southeastern holiness denominations into the new movement.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The Pentecostal movement, especially in its early stages, was typically associated with the impoverished and marginalized of America, especially African Americans and Southern Whites. With the help of many healing evangelists such as Oral Roberts, Pentecostalism spread across America by the 1950s.


title: Pentecostalism

text: International visitors and Pentecostal missionaries would eventually export the revival to other nations. The first foreign Pentecostal missionaries were A. G. Garr and his wife, who were Spirit baptized at Azusa and traveled to India and later Hong Kong. The Norwegian Methodist pastor T. B. Barratt was influenced by Seymour during a tour of the United States. By December 1906, he had returned to Europe and is credited with beginning the Pentecostal movement in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France and England. A notable convert of Barratt was Alexander Boddy, the Anglican vicar of All Saints' in Sunderland, England, who became a founder of British Pentecostalism. Other important converts of Barratt were German minister Jonathan Paul who founded the first German Pentecostal denomination (the Mülheim Association) and Lewi Pethrus, the Swedish Baptist minister who founded the Swedish Pentecostal movement.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Through Durham's ministry, Italian immigrant Luigi Francescon received the Pentecostal experience in 1907 and established Italian Pentecostal congregations in the US, Argentina (Christian Assembly in Argentina), and Brazil (Christian Congregation of Brazil). In 1908, Giacomo Lombardi led the first Pentecostal services in Italy. In November 1910, two Swedish Pentecostal missionaries arrived in Belem, Brazil and established what would become the Assembleias de Deus (Assemblies of God of Brazil). In 1908, John G. Lake, a follower of Alexander Dowie who had experienced Pentecostal Spirit baptism, traveled to South Africa and founded what would become the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa and the Zion Christian Church. As a result of this missionary zeal, practically all Pentecostal denominations today trace their historical roots to the Azusa Street Revival.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The first generation of Pentecostal believers faced immense criticism and ostracism from other Christians, most vehemently from the Holiness movement from which they originated. Alma White, leader of the Pillar of Fire Church—a Holiness Methodist denomination, wrote a book against the movement titled "Demons and Tongues" in 1910. She called Pentecostal tongues "satanic gibberish" and Pentecostal services "the climax of demon worship". Famous Holiness Methodist preacher W. B. Godbey characterized those at Azusa Street as "Satan's preachers, jugglers, necromancers, enchanters, magicians, and all sorts of mendicants". To Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, Pentecostalism was "the last vomit of Satan", while Dr. R. A. Torrey thought it was "emphatically not of God, and founded by a Sodomite". The Pentecostal Church of the Nazarene, one of the largest holiness groups, was strongly opposed to the new Pentecostal movement. To avoid confusion, the church changed its name in 1919 to the Church of the Nazarene.


title: Pentecostalism

text: A. B. Simpson's Christian and Missionary Alliance—a Keswickian denomination—negotiated a compromise position unique for the time. Simpson believed that Pentecostal tongues speaking was a legitimate manifestation of the Holy Spirit, but he did not believe it was a necessary evidence of Spirit baptism. This view on speaking in tongues ultimately led to what became known as the "Alliance position" articulated by A. W. Tozer as "seek not—forbid not".


title: Pentecostalism

text: The first Pentecostal converts were mainly derived from the Holiness movement and adhered to a Wesleyan understanding of sanctification as a definite, instantaneous experience and second work of grace. Problems with this view arose when large numbers of converts entered the movement from non-Wesleyan backgrounds, especially from Baptist churches. In 1910, William Durham of Chicago first articulated the Finished Work, a doctrine which located sanctification at the moment of salvation and held that after conversion the Christian would progressively grow in grace in a lifelong process. This teaching polarized the Pentecostal movement into two factions: Holiness Pentecostalism and Finished Work Pentecostalism. The Wesleyan doctrine was strongest in the Apostolic Faith Church, which views itself as being the successor of the Azusa Street Revival, as well as in the Congregational Holiness Church, Church of God (Cleveland), Church of God in Christ, Free Gospel Church and the Pentecostal Holiness Church; these bodies are classed as Holiness Pentecostal denominations. The Finished Work, however, would ultimately gain ascendancy among Pentecostals, in denominations such as the Assemblies of God, which was the first Finished Work Pentecostal denomination. After 1911, most new Pentecostal denominations would adhere to Finished Work sanctification.


title: Pentecostalism

text: In 1914, a group of 300 predominately white Pentecostal ministers and laymen from all regions of the United States gathered in Hot Springs, Arkansas, to create a new, national Pentecostal fellowship—the General Council of the Assemblies of God. By 1911, many of these white ministers were distancing themselves from an existing arrangement under an African-American leader. Many of these white ministers were licensed by the African-American, C. H. Mason under the auspices of the Church of God in Christ, one of the few legally chartered Pentecostal organizations at the time credentialing and licensing ordained Pentecostal clergy. To further such distance, Bishop Mason and other African-American Pentecostal leaders were not invited to the initial 1914 fellowship of Pentecostal ministers. These predominately white ministers adopted a congregational polity, whereas the COGIC and other Southern groups remained largely episcopal and rejected a Finished Work understanding of Sanctification. Thus, the creation of the Assemblies of God marked an official end of Pentecostal doctrinal unity and racial integration.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Among these Finished Work Pentecostals, the new Assemblies of God would soon face a "new issue" which first emerged at a 1913 camp meeting. During a baptism service, the speaker, R. E. McAlister, mentioned that the Apostles baptized converts once in the name of Jesus Christ, and the words "Father, Son, and Holy Ghost" were never used in baptism. This inspired Frank Ewart who claimed to have received as a divine prophecy revealing a nontrinitarian conception of God. Ewart believed that there was only one personality in the Godhead—Jesus Christ. The terms "Father" and "Holy Ghost" were titles designating different aspects of Christ. Those who had been baptized in the Trinitarian fashion needed to submit to rebaptism in Jesus' name. Furthermore, Ewart believed that Jesus' name baptism and the gift of tongues were essential for salvation. Ewart and those who adopted his belief, which is known as Oneness Pentecostalism, called themselves "oneness" or "Jesus' Name" Pentecostals, but their opponents called them "Jesus Only".


title: Pentecostalism

text: Amid great controversy, the Assemblies of God rejected the Oneness teaching, and many of its churches and pastors were forced to withdraw from the denomination in 1916. They organized their own Oneness groups. Most of these joined Garfield T. Haywood, an African-American preacher from Indianapolis, to form the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World. This church maintained an interracial identity until 1924 when the white ministers withdrew to form the Pentecostal Church, Incorporated. This church later merged with another group forming the United Pentecostal Church International. This controversy among the Finished Work Pentecostals caused Holiness Pentecostals to further distance themselves from Finished Work Pentecostals, who they viewed as heretical.


title: Pentecostalism

text: While Pentecostals shared many basic assumptions with conservative Protestants, the earliest Pentecostals were rejected by Fundamentalist Christians who adhered to cessationism. In 1928, the World Christian Fundamentals Association labeled Pentecostalism "fanatical" and "unscriptural". By the early 1940s, this rejection of Pentecostals was giving way to a new cooperation between them and leaders of the "new evangelicalism", and American Pentecostals were involved in the founding of the 1942 National Association of Evangelicals. Pentecostal denominations also began to interact with each other both on national levels and international levels through the Pentecostal World Fellowship, which was founded in 1947.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Some Pentecostal churches in Europe, especially in Italy and Germany, during the war were also victims of the Holocaust. Because of their tongues speaking their members were considered mentally ill, and many pastors were sent either to confinement or to concentration camps.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Though Pentecostals began to find acceptance among evangelicals in the 1940s, the previous decade was widely viewed as a time of spiritual dryness, when healings and other miraculous phenomena were perceived as being less prevalent than in earlier decades of the movement. It was in this environment that the Latter Rain Movement, the most important controversy to affect Pentecostalism since World War II, began in North America and spread around the world in the late 1940s. Latter Rain leaders taught the restoration of the fivefold ministry led by apostles. These apostles were believed capable of imparting spiritual gifts through the laying on of hands. There were prominent participants of the early Pentecostal revivals, such as Stanley Frodsham and Lewi Pethrus, who endorsed the movement citing similarities to early Pentecostalism. However, Pentecostal denominations were critical of the movement and condemned many of its practices as unscriptural. One reason for the conflict with the denominations was the sectarianism of Latter Rain adherents. Many autonomous churches were birthed out of the revival.


title: Pentecostalism

text: A simultaneous development within Pentecostalism was the postwar Healing Revival. Led by healing evangelists William Branham, Oral Roberts, Gordon Lindsay, and T. L. Osborn, the Healing Revival developed a following among non-Pentecostals as well as Pentecostals. Many of these non-Pentecostals were baptized in the Holy Spirit through these ministries. The Latter Rain and the Healing Revival influenced many leaders of the charismatic movement of the 1960s and 1970s.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Before the 1960s, most non-Pentecostal Christians who experienced the Pentecostal baptism in the Holy Spirit typically kept their experience a private matter or joined a Pentecostal church afterward. The 1960s saw a new pattern develop where large numbers of Spirit baptized Christians from mainline churches in the US, Europe, and other parts of the world chose to remain and work for spiritual renewal within their traditional churches. This initially became known as New or Neo-Pentecostalism (in contrast to the older classical Pentecostalism) but eventually became known as the Charismatic Movement. While cautiously supportive of the Charismatic Movement, the failure of Charismatics to embrace traditional Pentecostal teachings, such as the prohibition of dancing, abstinence from alcohol and other drugs such as tobacco, as well as restrictions on dress and appearance following the doctrine of outward holiness, initiated an identity crisis for classical Pentecostals, who were forced to reexamine long held assumptions about what it meant to be Spirit filled. The liberalizing influence of the Charismatic Movement on classical Pentecostalism can be seen in the disappearance of many of these taboos since the 1960s, apart from certain Holiness Pentecostal denominations, such as the Apostolic Faith Church, which maintain these standards of outward holiness. Because of this, the cultural differences between classical Pentecostals and charismatics have lessened over time. The global renewal movements manifest many of these tensions as inherent characteristics of Pentecostalism and as representative of the character of global Christianity.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Pentecostalism is an evangelical faith, emphasizing the reliability of the Bible and the need for the transformation of an individual's life through faith in Jesus. Like other evangelicals, Pentecostals generally adhere to the Bible's divine inspiration and inerrancy—the belief that the Bible, in the original manuscripts in which it was written, is without error. Pentecostals emphasize the teaching of the "full gospel" or "foursquare gospel". The term "foursquare" refers to the four fundamental beliefs of Pentecostalism: Jesus saves according to ; baptizes with the Holy Spirit according to Acts 2:4; heals bodily according to James 5:15; and is coming again to receive those who are saved according to 1 Thessalonians 4:16–17.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The central belief of classical Pentecostalism is that through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, sins can be forgiven and humanity reconciled with God. This is the Gospel or "good news". The fundamental requirement of Pentecostalism is that one be born again. The new birth is received by the grace of God through faith in Christ as Lord and Savior. In being born again, the believer is regenerated, justified, adopted into the family of God, and the Holy Spirit's work of sanctification is initiated.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Classical Pentecostal soteriology is generally Arminian rather than Calvinist. The security of the believer is a doctrine held within Pentecostalism; nevertheless, this security is conditional upon continual faith and repentance. Pentecostals believe in both a literal heaven and hell, the former for those who have accepted God's gift of salvation and the latter for those who have rejected it.


title: Pentecostalism

text: For most Pentecostals there is no other requirement to receive salvation. Baptism with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues are not generally required, though Pentecostal converts are usually encouraged to seek these experiences. A notable exception is Jesus' Name Pentecostalism, most adherents of which believe both water baptism and Spirit baptism are integral components of salvation.


title: Pentecostalism

text: While the figure of Jesus Christ and his redemptive work are at the center of Pentecostal theology, that redemptive work is believed to provide for a fullness of the Holy Spirit of which believers in Christ may take advantage. The majority of Pentecostals believe that at the moment a person is born again, the new believer has the presence (indwelling) of the Holy Spirit. While the Spirit "dwells" in every Christian, Pentecostals believe that all Christians should seek to be "filled" with him. The Spirit's "filling", "falling upon", "coming upon", or being "poured out upon" believers is called the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Pentecostals define it as a definite experience occurring after salvation whereby the Holy Spirit comes upon the believer to anoint and empower them for special service. It has also been described as "a baptism into the love of God".


title: Pentecostalism

text: The main purpose of the experience is to grant power for Christian service. Other purposes include power for spiritual warfare (the Christian struggles against spiritual enemies and thus requires spiritual power), power for overflow (the believer's experience of the presence and power of God in their life flows out into the lives of others), and power for ability (to follow divine direction, to face persecution, to exercise spiritual gifts for the edification of the church, etc.).


title: Pentecostalism

text: Pentecostals believe that the baptism with the Holy Spirit is available to all Christians. Repentance from sin and being born again are fundamental requirements to receive it. There must also be in the believer a deep conviction of needing more of God in their life, and a measure of consecration by which the believer yields themself to the will of God. Citing instances in the Book of Acts where believers were Spirit baptized before they were baptized with water, most Pentecostals believe a Christian need not have been baptized in water to receive Spirit baptism. However, Pentecostals do believe that the biblical pattern is "repentance, regeneration, water baptism, and then the baptism with the Holy Ghost". There are Pentecostal believers who have claimed to receive their baptism with the Holy Spirit while being water baptized.


title: Pentecostalism

text: It is received by having faith in God's promise to fill the believer and in yielding the entire being to Christ. Certain conditions, if present in a believer's life, could cause delay in receiving Spirit baptism, such as "weak faith, unholy living, imperfect consecration, and egocentric motives". In the absence of these, Pentecostals teach that seekers should maintain a persistent faith in the knowledge that God will fulfill his promise. For Pentecostals, there is no prescribed manner in which a believer will be filled with the Spirit. It could be expected or unexpected, during public or private prayer.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Pentecostals expect certain results following baptism with the Holy Spirit. Some of these are immediate while others are enduring or permanent. Most Pentecostal denominations teach that speaking in tongues is an immediate or initial physical evidence that one has received the experience. Some teach that any of the gifts of the Spirit can be evidence of having received Spirit baptism. Other immediate evidences include giving God praise, having joy, and desiring to testify about Jesus. Enduring or permanent results in the believer's life include Christ glorified and revealed in a greater way, a "deeper passion for souls", greater power to witness to nonbelievers, a more effective prayer life, greater love for and insight into the Bible, and the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Holiness Pentecostals, with their background in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, historically teach that baptism with the Holy Spirit, as evidenced by glossolalia, is the third work of grace, which follows the new birth (first work of grace) and entire sanctification (second work of grace).


title: Pentecostalism

text: While the baptism with the Holy Spirit is a definite experience in a believer's life, Pentecostals view it as just the beginning of living a Spirit-filled life. Pentecostal teaching stresses the importance of continually being filled with the Spirit. There is only one baptism with the Spirit, but there should be many infillings with the Spirit throughout the believer's life.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Pentecostalism is a holistic faith, and the belief that Jesus is Healer is one quarter of the full gospel. Pentecostals cite four major reasons for believing in divine healing: 1) it is reported in the Bible, 2) Jesus' healing ministry is included in his atonement (thus divine healing is part of salvation), 3) "the whole gospel is for the whole person"—spirit, soul, and body, 4) sickness is a consequence of the Fall of Man and salvation is ultimately the restoration of the fallen world. In the words of Pentecostal scholar Vernon L. Purdy, "Because sin leads to human suffering, it was only natural for the Early Church to understand the ministry of Christ as the alleviation of human suffering, since he was God's answer to sin ... The restoration of fellowship with God is the most important thing, but this restoration not only results in spiritual healing but many times in physical healing as well." In the book "In Pursuit of Wholeness: Experiencing God's Salvation for the Total Person", Pentecostal writer and Church historian Wilfred Graves, Jr. describes the healing of the body as a physical expression of salvation.


title: Pentecostalism

text: For Pentecostals, spiritual and physical healing serves as a reminder and testimony to Christ's future return when his people will be completely delivered from all the consequences of the fall. However, not everyone receives healing when they pray. It is God in his sovereign wisdom who either grants or withholds healing. Common reasons that are given in answer to the question as to why all are not healed include: God teaches through suffering, healing is not always immediate, lack of faith on the part of the person needing healing, and personal sin in one's life (however, this does not mean that all illness is caused by personal sin). Regarding healing and prayer Purdy states:


title: Pentecostalism

text: Pentecostals believe that prayer and faith are central in receiving healing. Pentecostals look to scriptures such as James 5:13–16 for direction regarding healing prayer. One can pray for one's own healing (verse 13) and for the healing of others (verse 16); no special gift or clerical status is necessary. Verses 14–16 supply the framework for congregational healing prayer. The sick person expresses their faith by calling for the elders of the church who pray over and anoint the sick with olive oil. The oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Besides prayer, there are other ways in which Pentecostals believe healing can be received. One way is based on Mark 16:17–18 and involves believers laying hands on the sick. This is done in imitation of Jesus who often healed in this manner. Another method that is found in some Pentecostal churches is based on the account in Acts 19:11–12 where people were healed when given handkerchiefs or aprons worn by the Apostle Paul. This practice is described by Duffield and Van Cleave in "Foundations of Pentecostal Theology":


title: Pentecostalism

text: During the initial decades of the movement, Pentecostals thought it was sinful to take medicine or receive care from doctors. Over time, Pentecostals moderated their views concerning medicine and doctor visits; however, a minority of Pentecostal churches continues to rely exclusively on prayer and divine healing. For example, doctors in the United Kingdom reported that a minority of Pentecostal HIV patients were encouraged to stop taking their medicines and parents were told to stop giving medicine to their children, trends that placed lives at risk.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The last element of the gospel is that Jesus is the "Soon Coming King". For Pentecostals, "every moment is eschatological" since at any time Christ may return. This "personal and imminent" Second Coming is for Pentecostals the motivation for practical Christian living including: personal holiness, meeting together for worship, faithful Christian service, and evangelism (both personal and worldwide). Globally, Pentecostal attitudes to the End Times range from enthusiastic participation in the prophecy subculture to a complete lack of interest through to the more recent, optimistic belief in the coming restoration of God's kingdom.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Historically, however, they have been premillennial dispensationalists believing in a pretribulation rapture. Pre-tribulation rapture theology was popularized extensively in the 1830s by John Nelson Darby, and further popularized in the United States in the early 20th century by the wide circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Pentecostals are continuationists, meaning they believe that all of the spiritual gifts, including the miraculous or "sign gifts", found in 1 Corinthians 12:4–11, 12:27–31, Romans 12:3–8, and Ephesians 4:7–16 continue to operate within the Church in the present time. Pentecostals place the gifts of the Spirit in context with the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is the result of the new birth and continuing to abide in Christ. It is by the fruit exhibited that spiritual character is assessed. Spiritual gifts are received as a result of the baptism with the Holy Spirit. As gifts freely given by the Holy Spirit, they cannot be earned or merited, and they are not appropriate criteria with which to evaluate one's spiritual life or maturity. Pentecostals see in the biblical writings of Paul an emphasis on having both character and power, exercising the gifts in love.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Just as fruit should be evident in the life of every Christian, Pentecostals believe that every Spirit-filled believer is given some capacity for the manifestation of the Spirit. It is important to note that the exercise of a gift is a manifestation of the Spirit, not of the gifted person, and though the gifts operate through people, they are primarily gifts given to the Church. They are valuable only when they minister spiritual profit and edification to the body of Christ. Pentecostal writers point out that the lists of spiritual gifts in the New Testament do not seem to be exhaustive. It is generally believed that there are as many gifts as there are useful ministries and functions in the Church. A spiritual gift is often exercised in partnership with another gift. For example, in a Pentecostal church service, the gift of tongues might be exercised followed by the operation of the gift of interpretation.


title: Pentecostalism

text: According to Pentecostals, all manifestations of the Spirit are to be judged by the church. This is made possible, in part, by the gift of discerning of spirits, which is the capacity for discerning the source of a spiritual manifestation—whether from the Holy Spirit, an evil spirit, or from the human spirit. While Pentecostals believe in the current operation of all the spiritual gifts within the church, their teaching on some of these gifts has generated more controversy and interest than others. There are different ways in which the gifts have been grouped. W. R. Jones suggests three categories, illumination (Word of Wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits), action (Faith, working of miracles and gifts of healings) and communication (Prophecy, tongues and interpretation of tongues). Duffield and Van Cleave use two categories: the vocal and the power gifts.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The gifts of prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues, and words of wisdom and knowledge are called the vocal gifts. Pentecostals look to 1 Corinthians 14 for instructions on the proper use of the spiritual gifts, especially the vocal ones. Pentecostals believe that prophecy is the vocal gift of preference, a view derived from 1 Corinthians 14. Some teach that the gift of tongues is equal to the gift of prophecy when tongues are interpreted. Prophetic and glossolalic utterances are not to replace the preaching of the Word of God nor to be considered as equal to or superseding the written Word of God, which is the final authority for determining teaching and doctrine.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Pentecostals understand the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge to be supernatural revelations of wisdom and knowledge by the Holy Spirit. The word of wisdom is defined as a revelation of the Holy Spirit that applies scriptural wisdom to a specific situation that a Christian community faces. The word of knowledge is often defined as the ability of one person to know what God is currently doing or intends to do in the life of another person.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Pentecostals agree with the Protestant principle of "sola Scriptura". The Bible is the "all sufficient rule for faith and practice"; it is "fixed, finished, and objective revelation". Alongside this high regard for the authority of scripture is a belief that the gift of prophecy continues to operate within the Church. Pentecostal theologians Duffield and van Cleave described the gift of prophecy in the following manner: "Normally, in the operation of the gift of prophecy, the Spirit heavily anoints the believer to speak forth to the body not premeditated words, but words the Spirit supplies spontaneously in order to uplift and encourage, incite to faithful obedience and service, and to bring comfort and consolation."


title: Pentecostalism

text: Any Spirit-filled Christian, according to Pentecostal theology, has the potential, as with all the gifts, to prophesy. Sometimes, prophecy can overlap with preaching "where great unpremeditated truth or application is provided by the Spirit, or where special revelation is given beforehand in prayer and is empowered in the delivery".


title: Pentecostalism

text: While a prophetic utterance at times might foretell future events, this is not the primary purpose of Pentecostal prophecy and is never to be used for personal guidance. For Pentecostals, prophetic utterances are fallible, i.e. subject to error. Pentecostals teach that believers must discern whether the utterance has edifying value for themselves and the local church. Because prophecies are subject to the judgement and discernment of other Christians, most Pentecostals teach that prophetic utterances should never be spoken in the first person (e.g. "I, the Lord") but always in the third person (e.g. "Thus saith the Lord" or "The Lord would have...").


title: Pentecostalism

text: A Pentecostal believer in a spiritual experience may vocalize fluent, unintelligible utterances (glossolalia) or articulate a natural language previously unknown to them (xenoglossy). Commonly termed "speaking in tongues", this vocal phenomenon is believed by Pentecostals to include an endless variety of languages. According to Pentecostal theology, the language spoken (1) may be an unlearned human language, such as the Bible claims happened on the Day of Pentecost, or (2) it might be of heavenly (angelic) origin. In the first case, tongues could work as a sign by which witness is given to the unsaved. In the second case, tongues are used for praise and prayer when the mind is superseded and "the speaker in tongues speaks to God, speaks mysteries, and ... no one understands him".


title: Pentecostalism

text: Within Pentecostalism, there is a belief that speaking in tongues serves two functions. Tongues as the "initial evidence" of the third work of grace, baptism with the Holy Spirit, and in individual prayer serves a different purpose than tongues as a spiritual gift. All Spirit-filled believers, according to initial evidence proponents, will speak in tongues when baptized in the Spirit and, thereafter, will be able to express prayer and praise to God in an unknown tongue. This type of tongue speaking forms an important part of many Pentecostals' personal daily devotions. When used in this way, it is referred to as a "prayer language" as the believer is speaking unknown languages not for the purpose of communicating with others but for "communication between the soul and God". Its purpose is for the spiritual edification of the individual. Pentecostals believe the private use of tongues in prayer (i.e. "prayer in the Spirit") "promotes a deepening of the prayer life and the spiritual development of the personality". From Romans 8:26–27, Pentecostals believe that the Spirit intercedes for believers through tongues; in other words, when a believer prays in an unknown tongue, the Holy Spirit is supernaturally directing the believer's prayer.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Besides acting as a prayer language, tongues also function as the "gift of tongues". Not all Spirit-filled believers possess the gift of tongues. Its purpose is for gifted persons to publicly "speak with God in praise, to pray or sing in the Spirit, or to speak forth in the congregation". There is a division among Pentecostals on the relationship between the gifts of tongues and prophecy. One school of thought believes that the gift of tongues is always directed from man to God, in which case it is always prayer or praise spoken to God but in the hearing of the entire congregation for encouragement and consolation. Another school of thought believes that the gift of tongues can be prophetic, in which case the believer delivers a "message in tongues"—a prophetic utterance given under the influence of the Holy Spirit—to a congregation.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Whether prophetic or not, however, Pentecostals are agreed that all public utterances in an unknown tongue must be interpreted in the language of the gathered Christians. This is accomplished by the gift of interpretation, and this gift can be exercised by the same individual who first delivered the message (if he or she possesses the gift of interpretation) or by another individual who possesses the required gift. If a person with the gift of tongues is not sure that a person with the gift of interpretation is present and is unable to interpret the utterance themself, then the person should not speak. Pentecostals teach that those with the gift of tongues should pray for the gift of interpretation. Pentecostals do not require that an interpretation be a literal word-for-word translation of a glossolalic utterance. Rather, as the word "interpretation" implies, Pentecostals expect only an accurate explanation of the utterance's meaning.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Besides the gift of tongues, Pentecostals may also use glossolalia as a form of praise and worship in corporate settings. Pentecostals in a church service may pray aloud in tongues while others pray simultaneously in the common language of the gathered Christians. This use of glossolalia is seen as an acceptable form of prayer and therefore requires no interpretation. Congregations may also corporately sing in tongues, a phenomenon known as singing in the Spirit.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Speaking in tongues is not universal among Pentecostal Christians. In 2006, a ten-country survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 49 percent of Pentecostals in the US, 50 percent in Brazil, 41 percent in South Africa, and 54 percent in India said they "never" speak or pray in tongues.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The gifts of power are distinct from the vocal gifts in that they do not involve utterance. Included in this category are the gift of faith, gifts of healing, and the gift of miracles. The gift of faith (sometimes called "special" faith) is different from "saving faith" and normal Christian faith in its degree and application. This type of faith is a manifestation of the Spirit granted only to certain individuals "in times of special crisis or opportunity" and endues them with "a divine certainty ... that triumphs over everything". It is sometimes called the "faith of miracles" and is fundamental to the operation of the other two power gifts.


title: Pentecostalism

text: During the 1910s, the Finished Work Pentecostal movement split over the nature of the Godhead into two camps – Trinitarian and Oneness. The Oneness doctrine viewed the doctrine of the Trinity as polytheistic.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The majority of Pentecostal denominations believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, which is considered by them to be Christian orthodoxy; these include Holiness Pentecostals and Finished Work Pentecostals. Oneness Pentecostals are nontrinitarian Christians, believing in the Oneness theology about God.


title: Pentecostalism

text: In Oneness theology, the Godhead is not three persons united by one substance, but one God who reveals himself in three different modes. Thus, God relates himself to humanity as our Father within creation, he manifests himself in human form as the Son by virtue of his incarnation as Jesus Christ (), and he is the Holy Spirit () by way of his activity in the life of the believer. Oneness Pentecostals believe that Jesus is the name of God and therefore baptize in the name of Jesus Christ as performed by the apostles (), fulfilling the instructions left by Jesus Christ in the Great Commission (), they believe that Jesus is the only name given to mankind by which we must be saved ().


title: Pentecostalism

text: The Oneness doctrine may be considered a form of Modalism, an ancient teaching considered heresy by the Roman Catholic Church and other trinitarian denominations. In contrast, Trinitarian Pentecostals hold to the doctrine of the Trinity, that is, the Godhead is not seen as simply three modes or titles of God manifest at different points in history, but is constituted of three completely distinct persons who are co-eternal with each other and united as one substance. The Son is from all eternity who became incarnate as Jesus, and likewise the Holy Spirit is from all eternity, and both are with the eternal Father from all eternity.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Traditional Pentecostal worship has been described as a "gestalt made up of prayer, singing, sermon, the operation of the gifts of the Spirit, altar intercession, offering, announcements, testimonies, musical specials, Scripture reading, and occasionally the Lord's supper". Russell P. Spittler identified five values that govern Pentecostal spirituality. The first was individual experience, which emphasizes the Holy Spirit's personal work in the life of the believer. Second was orality, a feature that might explain Pentecostalism's success in evangelizing nonliterate cultures. The third was spontaneity; members of Pentecostal congregations are expected to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, sometimes resulting in unpredictable services. The fourth value governing Pentecostal spirituality was "otherworldliness" or asceticism, which was partly informed by Pentecostal eschatology. The final and fifth value was a commitment to biblical authority, and many of the distinctive practices of Pentecostals are derived from a literal reading of scripture.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Spontaneity is a characteristic element of Pentecostal worship. This was especially true in the movement's earlier history, when anyone could initiate a song, chorus, or spiritual gift. Even as Pentecostalism has become more organized and formal, with more control exerted over services, the concept of spontaneity has retained an important place within the movement and continues to inform stereotypical imagery, such as the derogatory "holy roller". The phrase "Quench not the Spirit", derived from 1 Thessalonians 5:19, is used commonly and captures the thought behind Pentecostal spontaneity.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Prayer plays an important role in Pentecostal worship. Collective oral prayer, whether glossolalic or in the vernacular or a mix of both, is common. While praying, individuals may lay hands on a person in need of prayer, or they may raise their hands in response to biblical commands (1 Timothy 2:8). The raising of hands (which itself is a revival of the ancient orans posture) is an example of some Pentecostal worship practices that have been widely adopted by the larger Christian world. Pentecostal musical and liturgical practice have also played an influential role in shaping contemporary worship trends, with Pentecostal churches such as Hillsong Church being the leading producers of congregational music.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Several spontaneous practices have become characteristic of Pentecostal worship. Being "slain in the Spirit" or "falling under the power" is a form of prostration in which a person falls backwards, as if fainting, while being prayed over. It is at times accompanied by glossolalic prayer; at other times, the person is silent. It is believed by Pentecostals to be caused by "an overwhelming experience of the presence of God", and Pentecostals sometimes receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit in this posture. Another spontaneous practice is "dancing in the Spirit". This is when a person leaves their seat "spontaneously 'dancing' with eyes closed without bumping into nearby persons or objects". It is explained as the worshipper becoming "so enraptured with God's presence that the Spirit takes control of physical motions as well as the spiritual and emotional being". Pentecostals derive biblical precedent for dancing in worship from 2 Samuel 6, where David danced before the Lord. A similar occurrence is often called "running the aisles". The "Jericho march" (inspired by Book of Joshua 6:1–27) is a celebratory practice occurring at times of high enthusiasm. Members of a congregation began to spontaneously leave their seats and walk in the aisles inviting other members as they go. Eventually, a full column forms around the perimeter of the meeting space as worshipers march with singing and loud shouts of praise and jubilation. Another spontaneous manifestation found in some Pentecostal churches is holy laughter, in which worshippers uncontrollably laugh. In some Pentecostal churches, these spontaneous expressions are primarily found in revival services (especially those that occur at tent revivals and camp meetings) or special prayer meetings, being rare or non-existent in the main services.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Like other Christian churches, Pentecostals believe that certain rituals or ceremonies were instituted as a pattern and command by Jesus in the New Testament. Pentecostals commonly call these ceremonies ordinances. Many Christians call these sacraments, but this term is not generally used by Pentecostals and certain other Protestants as they do not see ordinances as imparting grace. Instead the term sacerdotal ordinance is used to denote the distinctive belief that grace is received directly from God by the congregant with the officiant serving only to facilitate rather than acting as a conduit or vicar.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The ordinance of water baptism is an outward symbol of an inner conversion that has already taken place. Therefore, most Pentecostal groups practice believer's baptism by immersion. The majority of Pentecostals do not view baptism as essential for salvation, and likewise, most Pentecostals are Trinitarian and use the traditional Trinitarian baptismal formula. However, Oneness Pentecostals view baptism as an essential and necessary part of the salvation experience and, as non-Trinitarians, reject the use of the traditional baptismal formula. For more information on Oneness Pentecostal baptismal beliefs, see the following section on Statistics and denominations.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The ordinance of Holy Communion, or the Lord's Supper, is seen as a direct command given by Jesus at the Last Supper, to be done in remembrance of him. Pentecostal denominations, who traditionally support the temperance movement, reject the use of wine as part of communion, using grape juice instead.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Foot washing is also held as an ordinance by some Pentecostals. It is considered an "ordinance of humility" because Jesus showed humility when washing his disciples' feet in John 13:14–17. Other Pentecostals do not consider it an ordinance; however, they may still recognize spiritual value in the practice.


title: Pentecostalism

text: According to various scholars and sources, Pentecostalism is the fastest-growing religious movement in the world; this growth is primarily due to religious conversion to Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity. According to Pulitzer Center 35,000 people become Pentecostal or "Born again" every day. According to scholar Keith Smith of Georgia State University "many scholars claim that Pentecostalism is the fastest growing religious phenomenon in human history", and according to scholar Peter L. Berger of Boston University "the spread of Pentecostal Christianity may be the fastest growing movement in the history of religion".


title: Pentecostalism

text: In 1995, David Barrett estimated there were 217 million "Denominational Pentecostals" throughout the world. In 2011, a Pew Forum study of global Christianity found that there were an estimated 279 million classical Pentecostals, making 4 percent of the total world population and 12.8 percent of the world's Christian population Pentecostal. The study found "Historically Pentecostal denominations" (a category that did not include independent Pentecostal churches) to be the largest Protestant denominational family.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The largest percentage of Pentecostals are found in Sub-Saharan Africa (44 percent), followed by the Americas (37 percent) and Asia and the Pacific (16 percent). The movement is enjoying its greatest surge today in the global South, which includes Africa, Central and Latin America, and most of Asia. There are 740 recognized Pentecostal denominations, but the movement also has a significant number of independent churches that are not organized into denominations.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Among the over 700 Pentecostal denominations, 240 are classified as part of Wesleyan, Holiness, or "Methodistic" Pentecostalism. Until 1910, Pentecostalism was universally Wesleyan in doctrine, and Holiness Pentecostalism continues to predominate in the Southern United States. Wesleyan Pentecostals teach that there are three crisis experiences within a Christian's life: conversion, sanctification, and Spirit baptism. They inherited the holiness movement's belief in entire sanctification. According to Wesleyan Pentecostals, entire sanctification is a definite event that occurs after salvation but before Spirit baptism. This inward experience cleanses and enables the believer to live a life of outward holiness. This personal cleansing prepares the believer to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit. Holiness Pentecostal denominations include the Apostolic Faith Church, Congregational Holiness Church, Free Gospel Church, Church of God in Christ, Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), and the Pentecostal Holiness Church. In the United States, many Holiness Pentecostal clergy are educated at the Free Gospel Bible Institute in Murrysville, Pennsylvania.


title: Pentecostalism

text: After William H. Durham began preaching his Finished Work doctrine in 1910, many Pentecostals rejected the Wesleyan doctrine of entire sanctification and began to teach that there were only two definite crisis experiences in the life of a Christian: conversion and Spirit baptism. These Finished Work Pentecostals (also known as "Baptistic" or "Reformed" Pentecostals because many converts were originally drawn from Baptist and Presbyterian backgrounds) teach that a person is initially sanctified at the moment of conversion. After conversion, the believer grows in grace through a lifelong process of progressive sanctification. There are 390 denominations that adhere to the finished work position. They include the Assemblies of God, the Foursquare Gospel Church, and the Open Bible Churches.


title: Pentecostalism

text: The 1904–1905 Welsh Revival laid the foundation for British Pentecostalism including a distinct family of denominations known as Apostolic Pentecostalism (not to be confused with Oneness Pentecostalism). These Pentecostals are led by a hierarchy of living apostles, prophets, and other charismatic offices. Apostolic Pentecostals are found worldwide in 30 denominations, including the Apostolic Church based in the United Kingdom.


title: Pentecostalism

text: There are 80 Pentecostal denominations that are classified as Jesus' Name or Oneness Pentecostalism (often self identifying as "Apostolic Pentecostals"). These differ from the rest of Pentecostalism in several significant ways. Oneness Pentecostals reject the doctrine of the Trinity. They do not describe God as three persons but rather as three manifestations of the one living God. Oneness Pentecostals practice Jesus' Name Baptism—water baptisms performed in the name of Jesus Christ, rather than that of the Trinity. Oneness Pentecostal adherents believe repentance, baptism in Jesus' name, and Spirit baptism are all essential elements of the conversion experience. Oneness Pentecostals hold that repentance is necessary before baptism to make the ordinance valid, and receipt of the Holy Spirit manifested by speaking in other tongues is necessary afterwards, to complete the work of baptism. This differs from other Pentecostals, along with evangelical Christians in general, who see only repentance and faith in Christ as essential to salvation. This has resulted in Oneness believers being accused by some (including other Pentecostals) of a "works-salvation" soteriology, a charge they vehemently deny. Oneness Pentecostals insist that salvation comes by grace through faith in Christ, coupled with obedience to his command to be "born of water and of the Spirit"; hence, no good works or obedience to laws or rules can save anyone. For them, baptism is not seen as a "work" but rather the indispensable means that Jesus himself provided to come into his kingdom. The major Oneness churches include the United Pentecostal Church International and the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World.


title: Pentecostalism

text: In addition to the denominational Pentecostal churches, there are many Pentecostal churches that choose to exist independently of denominational oversight. Some of these churches may be doctrinally identical to the various Pentecostal denominations, while others may adopt beliefs and practices that differ considerably from classical Pentecostalism, such as Word of Faith teachings or Kingdom Now theology. Some of these groups have been successful in utilizing the mass media, especially television and radio, to spread their message.


title: Pentecostalism

text: According to a denomination census in 2022, the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world, has 367,398 churches and 53,700,000 members worldwide. The other major international Pentecostal denominations are the Apostolic Church with 15,000,000 members, the Church of God (Cleveland) with 36,000 churches and 7,000,000 members, The Foursquare Church with 67,500 churches and 8,800,000 members.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Among the censuses carried out by Pentecostal denominations published in 2020, those claiming the most members were on each continent:


title: Pentecostalism

text: Zora Neale Hurston performed anthropological, sociological studies examining the spread of Pentecostalism. According to scholar of religion Ashon Crawley, Hurston's analysis is important because she understood the class struggle that this seemingly new religiocultural movement articulated: "The Sanctified Church is a protest against the high-brow tendency in Negro Protestant congregations as the Negroes gain more education and wealth." She stated that this sect was "a revitalizing element in Negro music and religion" and that this collection of groups was "putting back into Negro religion those elements which were brought over from Africa and grafted onto Christianity." Crawley would go on to argue that the shouting that Hurston documented was evidence of what Martinique psychoanalyst Frantz Fanon called the refusal of positionality wherein "no strategic position is given preference" as the creation of, the grounds for, social form.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Pentecostalism is a religious phenomenon more visible in the cities. However, it has attracted significant rural populations in Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe. Sociologist David Martin has called attention on an overview on the rural Protestantism in Latin America, focusing on the indigenous and peasant conversion to Pentecostalism. The cultural change resulting from the countryside modernization has reflected on the peasant way of life. Consequently, many peasants – especially in Latin America – have experienced collective conversion to different forms of Pentecostalism and interpreted as a response to modernization in the countryside


title: Pentecostalism

text: Rather than a mere religious shift from folk Catholicism to Pentecostalism, Peasant Pentecostals have dealt with agency to employ many of their cultural resources to respond development projects in a modernization framework


title: Pentecostalism

text: Researching Guatemalan peasants and indigenous communities, Sheldon Annis argued that conversion to Pentecostalism was a way to quit the burdensome obligations of the cargo-system. Mayan folk Catholicism has many fiestas with a rotation leadership who must pay the costs and organize the yearly patron-saint festivities. One of the socially-accepted ways to opt out those obligations was to convert to Pentecostalism. By doing so, the Pentecostal Peasant engage in a “penny capitalism”. In the same lines of moral obligations but with different mechanism economic self-help, Paul Chandler has compared the differences between Catholic and Pentecostal peasants, and has found a web of reciprocity among Catholics compadres, which the Pentecostals lacked. However, Alves has found that the different Pentecostal congregations replaces the compadrazgo system and still provide channels to exercise the reciprocal obligations that the peasant moral economy demands.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Conversion to Pentecostalism provides a rupture with a socially disrupted past while allowing to maintain elements of the peasant ethos. Brazil has provided many cases to evaluate this thesis. Hoekstra has found out that rural Pentecostalism more as a continuity of the traditional past though with some ruptures. Anthropologist Brandão sees the small town and rural Pentecostalism as another face for folk religiosity instead of a path to modernization. With similar finding, Abumanssur regards Pentecostalism as an attempt to conciliate traditional worldviews of folk religion with modernity.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Identity shift has been noticed among rural converts to Pentecostalism. Indigenous and peasant communities have found in the Pentecostal religion a new identity that helps them navigate the challenges posed by modernity. This identity shift corroborates the thesis that the peasant Pentecostals pave their own ways when facing modernization.


title: Pentecostalism

text: Various Christian groups have criticized the Pentecostal and charismatic movement for too much attention to mystical manifestations, such as glossolalia (which, for a believer, would be the obligatory sign of a baptism with the Holy Spirit); along with falls to the ground, moans and cries during worship services, as well as anti-intellectualism.


title: Pentecostalism

text: A particularly controversial doctrine in the Evangelical Churches is that of the prosperity theology, which spread in the 1970s and 1980s in the United States, mainly through Pentecostals and charismatic televangelists. This doctrine is centered on the teaching of Christian faith as a means to enrich oneself financially and materially through a "positive confession" and a contribution to Christian ministries. Promises of divine healing and prosperity are guaranteed in exchange for certain amounts of donation.Some pastors threaten those who do not tithe with curses, attacks from the devil and poverty.The collections of offerings are multiple or separated in various baskets or envelopes to stimulate the contributions of the faithful.


title: Pentecostalism

text: In Pentecostalism, rifts accompanied the teaching of faith healing. In some churches, pricing for prayer against promises of healing has been observed. Some pastors and evangelists have been charged with claiming false healings. Some churches have advised their members against vaccination or other medicine, stating that it is for those weak in the faith and that with a positive confession, they would be immune from the disease. In 2019, in Mbandjock, in Cameroon, three deaths were linked to this position in a church. This position is not representative of all evangelical churches. "The Miraculous Healing," published in 2015 by the National Council of Evangelicals of France, mentions that medicine is one of the gifts of God given to humans. Churches and certain evangelical humanitarian organizations are also involved in medical health programs.


title: Bukkake

text: Bukkake videos are a relatively prevalent niche in contemporary pornographic films. Originating in Japan in the 1980s, the genre subsequently spread to North America and Europe, and crossed over into gay pornography.


title: Bukkake

text: Bukkake is the noun form of the Japanese verb "bukkakeru" (ぶっ掛ける, to dash or sprinkle water), and means "to dash", "splash", or "heavy splash". The compound verb can be decomposed into a prefix and a verb: "butsu" (ぶつ) and "kakeru" (掛ける). "Butsu" is a prefix derived from the verb "buchi", which literally means "to hit", but the usage of the prefix is a verb-intensifier.


title: Bukkake

text: "Kakeru" in this context means to shower or pour. The word "bukkake" is often used in Japanese to describe pouring out a liquid with sufficient momentum to cause splashing or spilling. Indeed, bukkake is used in Japan to describe a type of dish where hot broth is poured over noodles, as in bukkake udon and bukkake soba.


title: Bukkake

text: There is a popular belief that links the origin of the practice to a form of punishment for adultery on women in medieval Japan. In fact, that description of its origin is false, mainly because the actual punishment for cheating wives was decapitation. Bukkake was first represented in pornographic films in the mid to late 1980s in Japan. According to one commentator, a significant factor in the development of bukkake as a pornographic form was the mandatory censorship in Japan where genitals must be pixelated by a "mosaic". One consequence of this is that Japanese pornography tends to focus more on the face and body of actresses rather than on their genitals. Since film producers could not show penetration, they sought other ways to depict sex acts without violating Japanese law and since semen did not need to be censored, a loophole existed for harder sex scenes. However, popularization of the act and the term for it has been credited to director Kazuhiko Matsumoto in 1998. The Japanese adult video studio Shuttle Japan registered the term "ぶっかけ/ＢＵＫＫＡＫＥ" as a trademark (No. 4545137) in January 2001.


title: Bukkake

text: The practice then spread from Japan to the United States and then Europe in the late 1990s. The appearance of bukkake videos was part of a trend towards "harder" pornography in the 1990s, preceded by a fashion for double penetration videos in the mid-1990s, and occurring in parallel to the appearance of gang bang videos towards the end of that decade. There was an economic advantage for Western pornographers to produce bukkake films since they only require one actress, and often amateur male performers whose pay rates are low. However, Western-style bukkake videos differ in some aspects from those in Japan; in Japanese bukkake videos, female performers are frequently dressed as office ladies or in school uniforms, and they are being humiliated, whereas women in Western-style bukkake videos are portrayed as enjoying the scene. Another Japanese variant of bukkake is gokkun, in which several men ejaculate into a container for the receiver to drink. Bukkake is less popular than some other porn niches in the West, possibly because the implicit subordination of the woman does not appeal to many consumers, and because cum shots are normally the climax of a scene, rather than the main events.


title: Bukkake

text: The genre has also spread to gay pornography, featuring scenes in which several men ejaculate on another man. "Lesbian bukkake" videos are also produced. The 17th World Congress of Sexology in Montreal in July 2005 included a presentation on bukkake.


title: Bukkake

text: American editor and publisher Russ Kick, quoting a sexologist, states that men enjoy a "sense of closure and finality about sex", something that watching other men ejaculate provides. The viewer identifies with the ejaculating men, experiencing a sense of vicarious pleasure.


title: Bukkake

text: A number of authors have described bukkake as premised on humiliation. Forensic psychologist Karen Franklin has described bukkake as symbolic group rape, characterising its primary purpose as the humiliation, degradation and objectification of women. Lisa Jean Moore and Juliana Weissbein view the use of ejaculation in bukkake as part of a humiliation ritual, noting that it generally does not involve any of the female participants experiencing orgasm.


title: Bukkake

text: Dines describes the money shot of a man ejaculating on the face or body of a woman, taken to a new extreme in bukkake through the involvement of multiple men, as "one of the most degrading acts in porn".


title: Bukkake

text: Tristan Taormino, feminist author and sex educator, has likened bukkake to a "gay circle jerk", noting the inconsistency between its billing as a heterosexual practice and the fact that it features a group of naked men standing in close proximity to each other, masturbating together.


title: Bukkake

text: Phillip Vannini, associate professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Royal Roads University, quotes "self-proclaimed net sex commentator" George Kranz, who views recent American interpretations of bukkake as a "significant advance in human behaviour", emphasising the lively, almost party-like atmosphere of American bukkake videos compared to the more subdued Japanese style.


title: Ayman al-Zawahiri

text: Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born terrorist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death.


title: Ayman al-Zawahiri

text: Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University with a degree in medicine and a master's degree in surgery and was a surgeon by profession. He became a leading figure in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, an Egyptian Islamist organization, and eventually attained the rank of emir. He was imprisoned from 1981 to 1984 for his role in the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. His actions against the Egyptian government, including his planning of the 1995 attack on the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan, resulted in him being sentenced to death "in absentia" during the 1999 "Returnees from Albania" trial.


title: Ayman al-Zawahiri

text: A close associate of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, al-Zawahiri held significant sway over the group's operations. Al-Zawahiri was wanted by the United States and the United Nations, respectively, for his role in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania and in the 2002 Bali bombings. He merged the Egyptian Islamic Jihad with al-Qaeda in 2001 and formally became bin Laden's deputy in 2004. He succeeded bin Laden as al-Qaeda's leader after bin Laden's death in 2011. In May 2011, the U.S. announced a $25 million bounty for information leading to his capture.


title: Ayman al-Zawahiri

text: Ayman al-Zawahiri was born June 19, 1951, in Giza, in what was then the Kingdom of Egypt, to Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri and Umayma Azzam.


title: Ayman al-Zawahiri

text: "The New York Times" in 2001 described al-Zawahiri as coming from "a prosperous and prestigious family that gives him a pedigree grounded firmly in both religion and politics". Al-Zawahiri's parents both came from prosperous families. Al-Zawahiri's father, Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri, came from a large family of doctors and scholars from Kafr Ash Sheikh Dhawahri, Sharqia, in which one of his grandfathers was Sheikh Muhammad al-Ahmadi al-Zawahiri (1887–1944) who was the 34th Grand Imam of al-Azhar. Mohammed Rabie became a surgeon and a professor of pharmacy at Cairo University. Ayman Al-Zawahiri's mother, Umayma Azzam, came from a wealthy, politically active clan, the daughter of Abdel-Wahhab Azzam, a literary scholar who served as the president of Cairo University, the founder and inaugural rector of the King Saud University (the first university in Saudi Arabia) as well as ambassador to Pakistan, while his own brother was Azzam Pasha, the founding secretary-general of the Arab League (1945–1952). From his maternal side yet another relative was Salem Azzam, an Islamist intellectual and activist, for a time secretary-general of the "Islamic Council of Europe" based in London. The wealthy and prestigious family is also linked to the Red Sea Harbi tribe in Zawahir, a small town in Saudi Arabia, located in the Badr.


title: Ayman al-Zawahiri

text: He also has a maternal link to the house of Saud: Muna, the daughter of Azzam Pasha (his maternal great-uncle), is married to Mohammed bin Faisal Al Saud, the son of the late King Faisal.