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Martin's new book expands his focus to the global phenomenon of "Pentecostalism, and its vast charismatic penumbra." Throughout, his approach is judicious, balanced, and respectful. His range of cultural and historical reference is also impressively broad. Beginning with Pentecostal roots in the "pullulating matrix of American experimental religion," he traces "how the religion of poor whites fused with the religion of poor blacks to create a potent amalgam capable of crossing the cultural species barrier and taking off on a global scale." After revisiting his familiar ground of Latin America, he describes Pentecostal successes across Africa, where the new churches have far outpaced the so-called "African independent" congregations that attracted so much attention a few years ago. His account of Asia is especially significant since Pentecostalism is at the cutting edge of Christian growth in China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, and all around what we conventionally call the Pacific Rim—but should increasingly be termed the "Christian Arc." An important chapter discusses the Pentecostal presence among indigenous peoples in Central America and elsewhere, peoples for whom the churches serve as an essential bridge to what would otherwise be a deeply intimidating modern civilization.
As will be obvious from this very diverse listing of regions and societies, Pentecostalism emerges as anything but a homogeneous whole. It appeals to "the respectable poor seeking to enter the modern world" in Latin America; to "the new middle classes of West Africa and South-East Asia"; as well as to minority groupings for whom such familiar class terminology is quite inappropriate. But however its exact appeal varies from place to place, the Pentecostal movement is succeeding dramatically. A global total of 250 million Pentecostals today—and that is a conservative estimate—could rise to a billion by 2040 or so. If that projection is correct, there will then be almost as many Pentecostals as Hindus worldwide, and they will far exceed the number of Buddhists. (But just try going to your local superstore and looking for materials on Pentecostal Christianity, as opposed to those Asian faiths.)
Martin is particularly good at addressing issues that earlier scholars have neglected. It is not too difficult to study regions of runaway Pentecostal success like Korea or Brazil and to suggest why the movement should have burned there like fire in the thatch; but why have other societies proved so resistant? If Latin America has welcomed the new faith, why is Latin Europe (largely) so cool? Martin's explanation stresses the enormous economic gulf that separates the two areas, as we contrast the relative prosperity of even the poorest corners of Europe with the extreme immiseration of urban Brazil or Chile. He may well be right, but the contrast suggests the limitations of his British- and European-oriented perspective. Though analogies can be suggestive, the differences between global South and North might just be too enormous to allow any worthwhile extrapolation. In this context, I note the lovely epigraph that Martin has taken from John Updike: "I don't think God plays well in Sweden … God sticks pretty close to the Equator."
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