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306
book reviews
Tim Welch
Joseph Smale: God’s ‘Moses’ for Pentecostalism, Studies in Evangelical History and
Thought (Milton Keynes,uk: Paternoster, 2013). xxii + 274 pp. $49.00 paperback.
In this recent publication, Tim Welch provides important new insight into the nascent Pentecostal revival of the twentieth century. Welch is the pastor of CambrayBaptistChurchinCheltenhamand isa Fellowofthe Centrefor Baptist History and Heritage at the University of Oxford. Joseph Smale represents the culmination of dissertation research undertaken during his doctoral studies at the University of Birmingham.
Welch’s monograph takes a biographical approach to early Pentecostal his- tory. He focuses upon Joseph Smale, an individual often mentioned at the dawning of the revival but whose prominence was quickly obscured by oth- ers. Frank Bartleman, for instance, discussed local Los Angeles pastor Joseph Smale in his famous Azusa Street account, noting his early role but critiquing him for not being sufficiently Spirit-led and rejecting the full expression of tongues. Just as Moses could see the Promised Land but not enter in, Smale’s inability to fully embrace Azusa Street was for Bartleman an unfortunate devel- opment. For Welch, such a brief summation has been historically limiting, obscuring the unique contributions his subject made to the emerging move- ment. In response, this biographical study seeks in part to describe Smale’s “catalytic role in the chain of events leading to the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in 1906” (1).
Tracing Smale’s life from his Methodist influenced-roots in Cornwall to his Baptist training under Spurgeon, Welch makes the case that these formational experiences impacted the way in which he would minister in the United States. His pastorate at the First Baptist Church of Los Angeles followed by his work at the First New Testament Church directly links him with both the background of Pentecostalism and its most prominent early revival. Parts of Smale’s life and thought read like a primer in Pentecostal beginnings: restorationism, the “four-fold gospel” (163), the tension between pragmatism and piety, and a desire for a personal experience of Pentecost. Indeed, the meetings he conducted following an encounter with the Welsh Revival both predated Azusa Street and ran parallel to it. While it is true that Smale did ultimately reject the importance emerging Pentecostalism placed upon tongues, Welch interprets his identity as a “Moses” much more positively than the Bartleman tradition.
Welch’s work is the product of a significant amount of primary research, and he is to be commended for the exhaustiveness and care with which he has assembled his materials. He has done nothing less than to create a whole cloth out of disparate evidentiary threads. In the process he makes an intrigu-
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2015 | doi: 10.1163/15700747-03702014
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book reviews
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ing case for Smale’s place as an important precursor and parallel element to the religious developments in Los Angeles culminating at Azusa Street. Anchor- ing Smale’s ministry in his biography, Welch draws connections to the teach- ings of Charles Spurgeon and Baptist theology. These links represent helpful and heretofore less explored ways of understanding embryonic Pentecostalism and contributes positively to historiography related to the movement’s various roots and multiple origins.
Notwithstanding the contribution of Welch’s monograph, there are some concerns. First, because of the paucity of available materials there are some sec- tions of Smale’s life that are sadly obscured. Though this is not the author’s fault, these gaps ought to have been considered or explained in more detail. Second, Welch’s attempt to psychologize his subject through the use of James Loder’s development theory feels a bit extraneous. While he is to be commended for attempts at interdisciplinarity in his work, the apparatus he utilizes could be more artfully woven in his work.
Finally, there is the matter of Welch’s perspective on Joseph Smale, which seems overly positive. Though Smale served a number of short pastorates, faced controversy in some of his churches, and had a failed marriage, Welch elects not to comment on these issues besides reporting them having happened or explaining them from Smale’s point of view. While certainly not all of these developments are to be traced to flaws in his subject’s character, Welch would have had a much more robust an illuminative biography if he had applied some of his analytical and critical eye to these and other issues.
Despite these questions, a work like Joseph Smale is essential, both for the contributions it makes and the new lines of conversation it opens. The effort that went into mining its sources and constructing such a linear and informative narrative should stand as a model for other aspiring historians. As a compliment to Bartleman’s Azusa Street or a biographical illustration of Donald Dayton’s Theological Roots of Pentecostalism, Welch’s study is helpful. It is highly recommended for scholars in the field and others who desire to go beyond the traditional narratives of Pentecostal beginnings.
Joshua R. Ziefle
Associate Professor, Northwest University, Kirkland, Washington
PNEUMA 37 (2015) 281–311
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