Italian American Pentecostalism and the Struggle for Religious Identity

Paul J. Palma

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429581427
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

While many established forms of Christianity have seen significant decline in recent decades, Pentecostals are currently one of the fastest growing religious groups across the world. This book examines the roots, inception, and expansion of Pentecostalism among Italian Americans to demonstrate how Pentecostalism moves so freely through widely varying cultures.

The book begins with a survey of the origins and early shaping forces of Italian American Pentecostalism. It charts its birth among immigrants in Chicago as well as the initial expansion fuelled by the convergence of folk-Catholic, Reformed evangelical, and Holiness sources. The book goes on to explain how internal and external pressures demanded structure, leading to the founding of the Christian Church of North America in 1927. Paralleling this development was the emergence of the Italian District of the Assemblies of God, the Assemblee di Dio in Italia (Assemblies of God in Italy), the Canadian Assemblies of God, and formidable denominations in Brazil and Argentina. In the closing chapters, based on analysis of key theological loci and in lieu of contemporary developments, the future prospects of the movement are laid out and assessed.

This book provides a purview into the religious lives of an underexamined, but culturally significant group in America. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of Pentecostalism, Religious Studies and Religious History, as well as Migrations Studies and Cultural Studies in America

Part I
Through the fire

The historical contours of Italian American Pentecostalism

Frontispiece I A group gathered for the Thirtieth Annual CCNA National Convention held jointly with the IPCC in Montreal, Quebec, 1957. The convention also marked the Golden Anniversary of the Italian American Pentecostal movement. Alongside the Camp Meetings, the Annual Convention was the highpoint of the social life of the movement.

Source: Photo courtesy of Esther Stigliano.

1
“Tongues of fire”

The roots of Italian Pentecostalism

Italian Pentecostalism emerged from the bricolage of religious movements and traditions within late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century American religion. This chapter examines more closely the movement’s continuity with prior streams. The Catholic identity of Italian Pentecostals draws principally from the folk traditions of the contadini, while their Protestant origins can be traced to the Waldensians, the Great Awakening, and several currents on the outer fringes of Christianity. This chapter also broaches the influence of the nineteenth-century Holiness and Divine Healing movements. In addition to the miraculous and a distinct millenarianism, traits shared by most revival movements, the religious movements and traditions assessed in this chapter share with Italian Pentecostalism an emphasis on the “baptism in the Spirit,” the hallmark religious experience of Italian Pentecostals.

Early Christian spirituality

To comprehend the broader historical significance of Italian Pentecostalism, one must look beyond Catholic and Protestant traditions to the church of the apostolic era. Seen against the backdrop of the book of Acts, Spirit baptism enables personal transformation and power for ministry.¹ Acts 2 recounts the gathering of the Jewish people for the Feast of Weeks, known to Hellenistic Jews as the hēmeran pentēkostēs (Gk. for “day of Pentecost”). Luke describes a vast number assembled for this annual festival to celebrate the renewal of God’s covenant. The narrative proceeds to describe a new harvest at hand, marked by the advent of “power, wonders, and signs” (v. 22), the apex of which was the baptism in the Spirit – “the gift of the Holy Spirit” (v. 38) and “promise” of the Father (vv. 33, 39).² In Ephesians 4, Paul the apostle describes how the ascended Christ, in fulfillment of the prophecies of old “gave gifts to his people” (v. 8). His teaching on the charismata (“gifts”) is elaborated in 1 Corinthians 12–14. During the first century, the citizens of Corinth, a Roman colony, lived according to the imperial cult and many practiced polytheism alongside the rituals of the Greek mystery religions. Paul qualifies his admonition with the affirmation of communal identity in Christ. The charismatic “gifts” were to be rooted in the one “gift” of Spirit baptism: “For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – Jews or Greeks, slaves or free – and we were all made to drink of one Spirit” (12:13).³

As alluded to by Francesco Toppi, Enzo Pace and Annalisa Butticci, and Esposito, foreshadowings of Italian Pentecostalism can also be discerned in the second-century Montanist movement of Phrygia. Upon his conversion, Montanus, a former pagan priest, claimed to be an inspired organ of the Spirit.⁴ The Montanists are described as having been “possessed of the Holy Spirit,” contained in feelings of being “stirred up” and “filled.” The religiosity of the Montanists was typified by a trance-like state exhibited through ecstatic (“strange” and “spurious”) speech.⁵ Their alleged irrationalism although need not undermine the authentic presence of the charismata among them.⁶ Tertullian (AD 150–220), a Montanist supporter, maintained that such signs of the Spirit, especially tongues and the interpretation of tongues, indeed endure and are to be sought. The ecstatic spirituality of the Montanists, as well as their conspicuous millenarianism and asceticism, was directed against the moral laxity of the Catholic Church.⁷

Medieval renewal

The section that follows appraises encounters and depictions of the Spirit-filled life in the patron saints of Italy, Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, and the Waldensians. During the Medieval Period, notably the High Middle Ages, speaking in tongues (glossolalia) was not looked on as an individual spiritual gift, bestowed in isolation, but rather seen as the evidence of a life of holiness and often accompanied by other miraculous gifts.⁸

Patron saints of Italy

Italy’s patron saints were known for their mystical spirituality and supernaturalism. Francis of Assisi (ca. 1181–1226), hailed with Catherine of Siena as the national saint of Italy, gained repute for his spiritual power channeled towards the cause of the poor and oppressed. Francis is said to have been gifted with the ability to heal and speak in tongues.⁹ Although a native speaker of the Italic dialect Umbrian, he developed an affinity for learning French. His contemporary, the scholar Jacobus de Voragine, describes how Francis’ penchant for the language emanated from a sense of spiritual fullness and vigor: “Whenever he was filled with the ardor of the Holy Spirit, he burst out with ardent words in French.”¹⁰ A trusted friend of Francis and high-ranking priest of the Franciscan order, Anthony of Padua (1195–1231), is likewise commended for his spirituality and ability to speak in unlearned native tongues.¹¹

Revered as the “Seraphic Doctor,” Franciscan theologian and Cardinal Bishop of Albano, Bonaventure (1221–74), described the Spirit foremost as “the gift” of the Father.¹² In his crowning theological work, the Breviloquium, Bonaventure outlines a Trinitarian framework for the biblical metaphor of fire, maintaining that the imagery of “fire” is particularly suited “in manner and origin” to the person of the Spirit.¹³ The Father is described as the ultimate source of the Spirit and the Son as sender of the Spirit. Indeed, Bonaventure depicts the sending of the promised Spirit – the divine “flame” of love – as the culmination of Jesus’ earthly ministry. He writes:

Finally, that he might inflame us with love, he sent down the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And since no one is filled with this fire who does not ask, seek, and knock with a persevering and persistent desire, he did so, not immediately after his ascension, but ten days later. During this interval the disciples, through fasting, prayer, and sighs, prepared themselves to receive the Holy Spirit.¹⁴

The Dominican friar Thomas Aquinas (1225–74), patron saint of his home-town Aquino (Lazio) and “patron of learning” of the Catholic Church, upheld a range of charismatic gifts including healing, prophecy, discerning of spirits, speaking in tongues, the interpretation of tongues, and gifts of wisdom and knowledge. He distinguishes gratum faciens (habitual or sanctifying grace) from the gratis datae (gratuitous or charismatic graces). The former is considered a permanent possession while the latter are added experiences of the Spirit (such as ecstatic speech).¹⁵ Thomas aligns the sacrament of confirmation, administered with anointing oil, with the appropriation of the Spirit’s fullness:

Christ, by the power which He exercises in the sacraments, bestowed on the apostles the reality of this sacrament, i.e. the fullness of the Holy Ghost …. For that the Holy Ghost came down upon them in a sensible manner under the form of fire, refers to the same signification as oil; except in so far as fire has an active power, while oil has a passive power, as being the matter and incentive of fire. And this was quite fitting: for it was through the apostles that the grace of the Holy Ghost was to flow forth to others. Again, the Holy Ghost came down on the apostles in the shape of a tongue.¹⁶

According to Thomas, through participation in the sacrament of confirmation one actualizes the gratis datae of speaking in tongues as a visible sign of the divine fullness. This process of actualization approximates the classical Pentecostal doctrine of subsequence (Spirit baptism seen as an infusion of grace separate from the grace that saves or sanctifies).¹⁷ The fullness of the Spirit is expressed through the imagery of fire, particularly descending “tongues of fire” (Acts 2:3).

Dominican theologian Catherine of Siena (1347–80) is esteemed for her spirited devotion, ecstatic prayer life, prophetic insight, and healing power. She pursued a mystical encounter with the fullness of the Spirit. Catherine describes a defining experience in 1370, a “mystical death” through which she was brought into a state of ecstatic union with God for several hours while appearing lifeless to all observers. Afterwards she was compelled to make a more public stand for her faith.¹⁸ Catherine speaks often of the “fire” of the Spirit, longing for the Spirit to be poured over her so that she might be a bearer of the “flame” of truth.¹⁹ She refers to the ecstatic expe...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of photo essay
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• List of abbreviations
• Introduction
• PART I Through the fire: the historical contours of Italian American Pentecostalism
• PART II Theological trajectories of Italian American Pentecostalism
• Conclusion: “To the Jew first and also to the Greek”
• Epilogue
• Bibliography
• Appendix A: CCNA “Articles of Faith” (1997)
• Appendix B: IPCC “We Believe” Statement (1993)
• Appendix C: Article 12 of the ADI’s “Articles of Faith” (Articoli di fede) statement (1999)
• Index