Pentecostal Politics in a Secular World

Joel Halldorf is Associate Professor at the University College Stockholm and docent in Church history at Uppsala University. He is a regular contributor to several newspapers and magazines in Sweden.

“The book that enables the author to mine a number of rich interconnected themes which relate to the practices of the Pentecostal movement in Sweden, and of Pethrus’s involvement therein. In so doing, Halldorf succeeds in depicting an image of Pethrus that is respectful of his achievements … . With the creeping spread in certain quarters … the importance of this task at both a scholarly and pastoral level is perhaps more urgent than ever.” (Scott Huntly, Journal of the European Pentecostal Theological Association, February 18, 2021)

• 1. Introduction: A Life Bent Towards Politics.- 2. Born and Born Again: The Making of a Counter-Cultural Identity.- 3. Visions of The Polis: From Denominational Bureaucracy to Spiritual Community.- 4. The Capital of Power: Charisma, Friendship, and Institutions.- 5. Escaping the Iron Cage: Pentecostalism and the Malaise of Modernity.- 6. Flirting with Fanaticism: Ecstasy, Authenticity, and Middle-Class Respectability.- 7. Lonely at the Top: The Cost of Leadership.- 8. All About the Money? Saving Souls or Funding CEOs.- 9. Church Politics for Revivalism: How to contain Latter Rain.- 10. Mission In Modernity: Large-Scale Projects and Episcopal Structures.- 11. Dreaming of a Christian Nation: Pentecostal Party Politics.- 12. Epilogue: Swedish Evangelicalism and the American Religious Right (Or: Why Swedish Pentecostals Are Not Trumpists).