Fields White Unto Harvest: Charles F Parham and the Missionary Origins of Pentecostalism by James R Goff Jr. University of Arkansas Press, (1988). ISBN: 1557280266.
Charles Parham, along with William Seymour, is the individual most commonly ascribed as being the founder of Pentecostalism. In particular it was at his independent Bible School in Topeka that the link between Holy Spirit baptism and the evidential gift of tongues was first prescriptively formulated. However, in part part because of Parham’s links with the Ku Klux Klan and persistent umour and scandal arising from the discontinued trial against Parham for sodomy Parham’s role has been diminished.
Goff’s study, which arises from his doctoral study, has two main characteristics. The main aim of Goff’s study is to offer a biography of Charles Parham which ranges from his childhood through to his time a lay minister in the Methodist tradition and the influence of Holiness thought on his ministry through to the nascent Apostolic Faith movement (of which Asuza Street was a local branch) and his break with Seymour and his continuing insistence on the doctrine of Xenoglossa (the gift of tongues were actual foreign languages to enable recipients communicte the faith in the language of their listeners) in spite of widespread Pentecostal disavowal of this belief. The second purpose is to argue against the then new proposal of Doudlas J Nelson’s Phd thesis at Birmingham University (1981) claiming Seymour as the founder of Pentecostalism. In particular Goff claims that (p 11)
Parham, more than Seymour, must be regarded the founder of the Pentecostal movement. It was Parham who first formulated the theological definition of Pentecostalism by linking tongues with the Holy Spirit baptism. Neither Parham nor contemporary Pentecostals would declare tongues the “only” evidence of reception of the Pentecostal blessing. Rather it served as the “initial” evidence. Despite the semantics, the phenomenon was crucial. As the initial evidence, Glossolalia becomes the sine qua non of the experience and its importance is hard to overestimate.
This emphasis on the priority of glossolalia for Pentecostal identity was also tied in with a belief that the emerging Pentecostal sympton of a latter day end-time revival in which the Bride of Christ (the ‘true’ Church) was making herself ready for Christ’s return by attempting to fulfil the Great Commission of Matthew 28 and Mark 16. It is for this reason that Goff argues that Pentecostalism is necessarily tied to doctrine of evidential tongues as a sign of Spirit Baptism and hence power for missionary service. This emphasis, rather than the radical egalitarianism of Asuza Street, is what is crucial for Pentecostal Identity, hence Goff’s designation of Parham as Pentecostalism’s ‘Projector’.
I disagree with Goff’s argument, one of the main reasons for this is that it seems clear that the theology and function of the evidential tongues seems to have altered in the experience of Asuza street and the painful experience of returning missionaries (such as A G Garr) who discovered that their gift did not, contrary to expectation, supernaturally enable them to preach in the local idioms. Nontheless, Goff’s book is a well argued and useful resource on the life of one of Pentecostalism’s pioneers.
Other Resources
An article by Gary McGee offering an exposition of Parham’s Theology of Tongues.
