a contextual missiology of the spirit - eTheses Repository ...

imported movement from south India, where Pentecostalism was supposedly
brought from North America.
In contemporary India the whole issue of religious identity is a serious concern.
The aforesaid notions about Pentecostals in India have some serious
repercussions. Such a misrepresentation will cause others to view them as
foreigners, and places them in a potentially vulnerable situation, which may lead
to faith conflicts. Although all Christians are exposed to attack from Hindu
militant groups, Pentecostals seem to be a particular target as they have been
labelled as a proselytising group even by other Christians. This misrepresentation
of Pentecostal origins in Rajasthan may also cause internal struggles within the
movement. Both these internal and external issues in turn affect Pentecostal
missiology, which has its own impact on the maintenance and growth of the
movement. Therefore, it is vital to investigate the problem of Pentecostal identity
in Rajasthan.
Given the situation and problem, this research intends to investigate the historical
context of Pentecostals in Rajasthan by addressing three central questions that
have directed this research. First, what is the identity of Pentecostalism in India as
a whole? This thesis will investigate whether there are any grounds for asserting
that Pentecostalism in India is a product of Western Pentecostalism. There are
various accounts regarding the origin of Indian Pentecostalism. According to G.B.
McGee and Burgess, the ‘Pentecostal and Pentecostal-like movements’ in India
preceded the twentieth-century Pentecostalism in the West by at least forty years.
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