The Challenges of the Pentecostal, Charismatic and Messianic Jewish Movements

This book explores the Pentecostal and charismatic movements, tracing their development and their variety. Hocken shows how these movements of the Holy Spirit, both outside the mainline churches and as renewal currents within the churches, can be understood as mutually challenging and as complementary. The similarities and the differences are significant. The Messianic Jewish movement possesses elements of both the new and the old. Addressing the issues of modernity and globalization, this book explores major phenomena in contemporary Christianity including the relationship between the new churches and entrepreneurial capitalism.

Peter Hocken has been a leader and scholar within the charismatic movement since 1971. He was President of the Society for Pentecostal Studies 1985-6 and executive secretary from 1988-97. He has had regular involvement in the European Pentecostal Charismatic Research Association since 1984. Since 1996 he has been an executive member of the Toward Jerusalem Council II initiative of Messianic Jewish and Christian leaders, and since 2000 he has been a member of an informal international Catholic-Messianic Jewish dialogue with some senior Catholic participants. He was, also, a major contributor to the two Dictionaries of the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements published in 1988 and 2002.