Charismatic Christianity

Charismatic Christianity is a form of Christianity that emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts as an everyday part of a believer's life.^[1] It has a global presence in the Christian community.^[2] Practitioners are often called Charismatic Christians or Renewalists. Although there is considerable overlap, Charismatic Christianity is often categorized into three separate groups: Pentecostalism, the Charismatic movement (which is spread across historical Christian denominations), and the Neo-charismatic movement.

Charismatic Christianity grew out of Protestantism^[3] and is distinguished from Pentecostalism by making the act of speaking in tongues no longer necessary as evidence of baptism with the Holy Spirit, and giving prominence to a diversity of spiritual gifts. According to the Pew Research Center, Pentecostals and Charismatic Christians number over 584 million worldwide as of 2011.^[4]

Etymology[edit]

The term charismatic derives from the Greek word χάρισμα charisma ('gift', itself derived from χάρις, 'grace, favor').^[5] The 17th century form charism specifically refers to divine gifts. Middle English also adopted the word as karisme to refer to gifts of healing and teaching.^[6]

Statistics[edit]

In 2011, there were 279 million Pentecostal Christians worldwide, making up 4 percent of the world's population and 12.8 percent of the wider Christian population. Charismatic Christians numbered 305 million, or about 4.4 percent of the world's population and 14 percent of the Christian population. Together, these groups make up 26.8 percent of the world's Christian population and over 8 percent of the world. Regionally, the highest concentration of Charismatic Christians live in the Americas, which houses 48.5 percent of the group. The next highest concentration is in the Asia-Pacific region, with another 29.6 percent of Charismatic Christians residing there.^[4]

Catholic Charismatic Renewal

Cessationism versus Continuationism

Charismatic Adventism

Direct revelation

Faith healing

Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship International

Latter Rain (1880s movement)

Latter Rain (post-World War II movement)

Christian laying on of hands

– a late 2nd-century, heterodox Christian movement which emphasized sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit

Montanism

Neo-charismatic movement

Renewal theologian

Slain in the Spirit

Word of Knowledge

Word of wisdom

Xenoglossy

Burgess, Stanley M., ed. and Eduard M. van der Maas, assoc. ed., , revised and expanded edition (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2002); publisher's page

The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements

Burgess, Stanley M., ed. Encyclopedia of Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity (Routledge, 2006);

publisher's page

The is an initiative by three leading European Universities in Pentecostal studies networking academic research on Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.

European Research Network on Global Pentecostalism (GloPent)

published under the auspices of GloPent