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n.p., 1984), Apartado 2287,
75
Un desafio al mondo
(Cadiz:
Paulo Neto Martins BRANCO,Pentecostes:
180
pp., paperback. [Can
be ordered from the author,
11080 Cadiz,
Spain]
Reviewed
by
David
Bundy
history
to be written
periodicals,
Spain. Bara, author
volumes for
(Lisbon: n.p. 1981),
one of the
history
in
Portugal.
It is a combination of
century
identifies
persons and/or those
concerns.
approach.
the.early
Pentecostal
countries,
Paul Branco has
produced
one of the few volumes on Pentecostal
in Southern
Europe,
a region known more for studies in
spirituality,
biblical commentaries, and
sophisticated
rather than for
historiography. Branco,
a graduate of the Institute Biblico de
Portugal,
is a
missionary
and
pastor
in
He is well known for his contributions to periodicals such as
as editor of Fiel. Revista
Evangelica
and Nueva Vida and as
(with
Lucas da
Silva)
of Panorama Pentecostal: Das Assembleias de Deus em
Portugal
most
important
Pentecostal
The
present
volume is more ambitious.
Pentecostal
apologetic, history
and
theology.
It
begins by tracing Pentecostal
theological
concerns
through
Acts and then
century by
movements which
represented
It is a traditional Pentecostal
“history
of heresies”
The volume also describes in somewhat uncritical terms
movement in the United States and in
Mozambique, Angola,
S. Timor.
country
basic
demographic description
variety
of Pentecostal churches
noting
the different movements.
of
guesses, of providing a status
quaestionis
Portuguese-speaking
The
major portion
of Branco’s work is devoted to a description the Pentecostal movement in
Europe,
with attention
given
to
Tome e
Principe,
Guinea Bissau and
The material is organized according to
country.
For each
and
political
data is given as well as a
of the Pentecostal movement in that
country. Usually
a bibliographic
note is supplied. While there are
many
inaccuracies in this section and some of the statistics are educated the author has done a remarkable job
on the basis of difficult and elusive data. It will need to be corrected and
supplemented
as careful and detailed studies of individual movements in specific countries are undertaken.
While not
complete,
the author does a better job
of describing
the
than most
previously published work.
Unfortunately
the Oneness
churches,
Black churches and
are not included.
Hollenweger’s
Pfingstbewegung (Diss. Zürich, 1966), though twenty years old, remains
unsurpassed
for
comprehensiveness.
. That
aside,
Branco has succeeded in demonstrating
as well as its development independent
of the North American movements. It is an important touchstone in European Pentecostal
immigrant
churches
diverse
heritage
of
European
Handbuch der`
the rich and
Pentecostalism
historiography.
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