Encountering African Pentecostalism: Methodologies and Evolving Tendencies

African Pentecostal Christianity is one of the fastest growing movements in world Christianity that has attracted the interest of many scholars from different fields such as theology, anthropology, sociology and others. However, in the past, the study of African Pentecostalism has been dominated by scholars from the Global North. It is only in recent years where we see the emergence of African scholars studying African Pentecostalism, with some becoming leading personalities in the field. As one of the emerging scholars in South Africa and the region, I provide a background to what sparked my interest in the study of African Pentecostalism. Similarly, I explore the approaches I use to the study of African Pentecostalism, such as church history, theology and missiology in the chapter. In addition, different challenges that one has encountered when studying African Pentecostalism will be highlighted to seek ways of dealing with such. It will be argued in the chapter that African Pentecostal Christianity continues to contribute to human flourishing and development of Africa regardless of the challenges faced by the movement. This makes African Pentecostalism a major contributor to the study of global Pentecostalism. However, African scholars will have to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to guarantee the future of African Pentecostalism as a field of study within theology.