Chilean Pentecostalism

Abstract

The first independent Pentecostal denomination in Latin America was founded in early twentieth-century Chile after a schism within the Methodist Episcopal Church. This chapter explores the origins of Chilean Pentecostalism, focusing particular attention on historical and theological connections with Methodism. I argue that although scholars are certainly right in paying careful attention to intrinsic developments, Chilean agency, and processes of indigenization, the history of Chilean Pentecostalism is in fact closely related to the history of global Pentecostalism because of a shared Methodist heritage. The chapter demonstrates that some of the internal, social, and theological tensions that caused the schism within the Methodist Episcopal Church, resulting in the foundation of a new Pentecostal ministry, have deep roots within North American Methodism. What Chilean Pentecostalism inherited from certain branches of Methodism was a strong revivalist urge and a contestatory cultural character that often clashed with a ‘high church’ push towards respectability.