I'm prepping a course for May on Pentecostal/Charismatic movements in the 20th century. The frustrating thing is that I'm not sure I'll get the numbers I need to run it. I need 10 students minimum and am pretty close. The thing is I've spent most of this week intensely preparing for the course and will probably use most of next week doing the same. It is fascinating and all - but if I end up not teaching the course then I basically wasted a lot of time prepping something that isn't going to run. And it is complicated - just getting my head around all the different holiness groups that predate classic Pentecostalism is a job and a half.
I did try to choose something strategic in proposing this course - but I might have had an easier time putting together something I've been researching recently. Over the years I've tried to keep up on Pentecostal scholarship - and there is some good scholarship to keep abreast of - and I do take a particular eschatological focus in my own theology that I owe in part to my own Pentecostal heritage. But it is one thing to read Dayton's Theological Roots of Pentecostalism (for instance, it's one of the many I've been re-reading) for interest and quite another thing to read it to flesh out lecture material.
Hopefully I'll find out soon if the course will go or not. What to take a history course May-June? It is going to be a lot of fun. If I don't then maybe I can pitch the course to another school. Hmmmmmm.
2 comments:
My colleague Tom Robinson does a History of Pentecostalism course here at the University of Lethbridge in southern Alberta. It fills up pretty quickly.
He also has a book on the girl evangelist phenomenon of the 1920s and 30s coming out on Oxford U. P. sometime this year.
Best of luck with the enrolment!
I thought for sure it would fill up quick here too. I know that there have been a number of Pentecostals who've come to the school and as well quite a few charismatic Catholics. There is still time though. I'll watch for that book - I've got quite a bit of material on Aimee Semple McPherson (I used to work with the Foursquare church once upon a time).
Thanks for stopping by,
Frank
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