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Religious Movements

Charismatic Movement

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Origin 1960 to 1967

A renewal movement that carried Pentecostal practice into the historic denominations without asking anyone to leave them, which is why it is not a denomination and cannot be counted as one. Charismatics seek the baptism or filling of the Holy Spirit and expect the gifts described in the New Testament, prophecy, healing and speaking in tongues, to be given in the present church. They differ from classical Pentecostals on a point that matters to both: Pentecostals have generally taught that tongues are the necessary initial evidence of Spirit baptism, while charismatics accept a range of experiences as evidence and tend to speak of being filled rather than of a second definite work. The movement has reshaped worship far beyond its own boundaries, and contemporary sung worship in a great many churches that would not call themselves charismatic descends directly from it.

Facts
Origins
Origin Period
1960 to 1967 2
Origin Period
From Episcopal priest Dennis Bennett's 1960 experience of Spirit baptism at St Mark's, Van Nuys, California, to the 1967 Duquesne Weekend that began the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. 2
Place of Origin
Van Nuys, California, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 2
Founder
No single founder 2
Founder
The renewal is conventionally dated from Dennis Bennett's announcement to his Californian Episcopal parish in 1960 2
Organisation
Governance
No central authority 2
Ordination
Varies between provinces or member bodies 2
Belief
Defining Doctrinal Position
Trinitarian: one God in three persons 2Tradition: Christianity
Doctrinal Position Detail
Charismatics do not require tongues as the necessary initial evidence of Spirit baptism the way classical Pentecostals do. They accept a wider range of experiences as evidence and tend to speak of being filled with the Holy Spirit rather than of a second definite work. 1
Sacraments or Ordinances
No position of its own. Participants keep the sacramental theology of the church they belong to, which is what allowed the renewal to run through Catholic and Protestant parishes at the same time. 3
Status
Status Today
Living tradition, practised today 2
Continues as a movement inside the historic churches rather than as a body with its own membership, which makes it uncountable by design.
Attributions
Church Family
A renewal movement inside existing churches rather than a church body. Its participants remained Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed or Baptist, and no new communion was formed. 1
History
Separation or Divergence
No separation 2
Separation or Divergence
The renewal remained inside the historic Protestant, Anglican and Catholic churches, which is exactly what distinguishes it from classical Pentecostalism 2
Practice
Baptism
The movement has no baptism of its own. Participants are baptised in whatever church they belong to, which ranges from infant baptism in the historic churches to believer's baptism. 1
Liturgical Language
The vernacular 2
Learn More
Gifts of the Spirit Within the Older Churches

The Charismatic Movement is a cross-denominational Christian renewal, beginning in the mid-twentieth century, that brought the gifts of the Holy Spirit (speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing and the rest), into the historic churches without asking their members to leave them. It is usually distinguished from classical Pentecostalism: where Pentecostalism produced separate denominations from the revivals of the early 1900s, the Charismatic Movement, from around 1960, saw the same experiences appear among Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and, from 1967, Roman Catholics, who mostly remained within their own communions. Its symbolic beginning is often dated to 1960, when Dennis Bennett, an Episcopal priest in Van Nuys, California, told his congregation that he had spoken in tongues.

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal, which emerged among students at Duquesne and Notre Dame in 1967, became one of its largest and most enduring streams and has been cautiously affirmed by the papacy. The defining conviction is that baptism in the Holy Spirit, a distinct empowering experience beyond conversion, and the charismata described in the New Testament are available to ordinary believers today, not confined to the apostolic age.

Sources The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.) with Malines Document I: Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic RenewalLeon-Joseph Suenens

Worship, Spread and Legacy

In practice the movement is marked by expressive, participatory worship: contemporary music, raised hands, spontaneous prayer, prayer for healing, and the exercise of spiritual gifts within otherwise traditional services or in dedicated prayer groups. It has no single organisation or founder; it spread instead through conferences, itinerant speakers, prayer fellowships and publishing, crossing denominational and national boundaries with unusual ease. Its influence has been enormous and diffuse. Together with Pentecostalism it forms part of what scholars call the Renewalist movement, counted among the largest and fastest-growing currents in modern Christianity, with particular strength in the global South, Africa, Latin America and Asia.

A later, related development, sometimes called the Third Wave or neo-charismatic movement, extended charismatic practice to independent and nondenominational churches that identify with neither classical Pentecostalism nor the historic denominations. The movement has reshaped worship styles far beyond its own boundaries, and has also drawn criticism, over the excesses of some healing and prosperity ministries, over the authenticity of ecstatic phenomena, and over tensions with more traditional understandings of church authority and order. It remains an influence within, rather than a replacement for, the churches it touched.

Sources The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.) with The Oxford Handbook of New Religious MovementsJames R. Lewis (ed.)

Religious Movements of Charismatic Movement

Word of Faith

Religious Movements
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Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

1960, Years

The atlas dates the origin of Charismatic Movement to 1960.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)
Pentecostalism, Denominations
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)

Belongs to Tradition

Christianity, Religions

Derived From

Pentecostalism, Denominations

Pentecostal practice carried into the historic churches rather than out of them, from the 1960s.

Source The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised editionF. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.)

Holds Element

Advent, Holidays & Festivals

Kept where the movement's host church keeps it.

Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Almsgiving / Charity, Practices
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Amazing Grace, Hymns & Liturgical Texts

Sung across the movement without being distinctive to it.

Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Azusa Street, Sacred Sites

The 1906 revival at Azusa Street in Los Angeles is the acknowledged origin of the Pentecostal practice the movement later carried into the historic denominations.

Source The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth of the Global Pentecostal MovementCecil M. Robeck Jr.
Baptism, Rituals
Source Zion and Pentecost: The Spirituality and Experience of Pentecostal and Zionist/Apostolic Churches in South AfricaAllan H. Anderson
Baptismal life, Practices
Source Zion and Pentecost: The Spirituality and Experience of Pentecostal and Zionist/Apostolic Churches in South AfricaAllan H. Anderson
Charity, Virtues
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Christmas, Holidays & Festivals
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Clerical Collar, Religious Dress & Vestments

Worn where the movement's host church vests its clergy, and set aside where it does not.

Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Confession, Practices

Kept where the movement's host church keeps it, since the movement adds to a church's practice rather than replacing it.

Source Malines Document I: Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic RenewalLeon-Joseph Suenens
Congregation, Religious Organization & Structure
Source African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth CenturyAllan H. Anderson
Cross, Sacred Objects & Ritual Items
Source African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth CenturyAllan H. Anderson
Easter, Holidays & Festivals
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Evangelist, Religious Roles & Titles
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Faith, Virtues
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Fasting, Practices
Source African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth CenturyAllan H. Anderson
Foot washing, Practices

Practised in some of the churches the movement has reached rather than being a mark of the movement.

Source African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth CenturyAllan H. Anderson
Good Friday, Holidays & Festivals
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Gospel Book, Sacred Objects & Ritual Items
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Gospel Music, Sacred Sound

Contemporary sung worship in a great many churches that would not call themselves charismatic descends directly from this movement, which reshaped congregational music far beyond its own boundaries.

Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Hope, Virtues
Source African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth CenturyAllan H. Anderson
Laity, Religious Organization & Structure

The movement's engine is lay ministry. Prophecy, healing prayer and deliverance are exercised by members of a congregation rather than reserved to the ordained, which is what made it portable into churches with very different orders.

Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Lent, Holidays & Festivals

Kept where the movement's host church keeps it.

Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Marriage Ceremony, Rituals
Source African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth CenturyAllan H. Anderson
Minister, Religious Roles & Titles
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Ministry, Religious Organization & Structure
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Missionary, Religious Roles & Titles
Source African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth CenturyAllan H. Anderson
Pastor, Religious Roles & Titles
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Pentecost, Holidays & Festivals

The movement takes its name and its whole self understanding from Pentecost, and reads the gifts described in the account of that day as given to the church in the present rather than withdrawn with the apostles.

Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Pilgrimage, Practices

Conferences and renewal gatherings draw people across long distances, but the movement has produced no shrine of its own.

Source African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth CenturyAllan H. Anderson
Prayer, Practices
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
The Mass / Eucharist, Rituals

The movement did not seek its own liturgy. It works inside churches that already celebrate the eucharist and leaves their rite as it found it.

Source Malines Document I: Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic RenewalLeon-Joseph Suenens
The Second Vatican Council, Councils and Synods

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal began in 1967 in the years immediately after the council, and the Malines document places it within the council's reading of the gifts given to the whole people of God.

Source Malines Document I: Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic RenewalLeon-Joseph Suenens
Tithing, Practices
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Watch Night, Holidays & Festivals

The watch night service is kept in churches the movement has reached, though it came to them from the Methodist and later the Black church tradition rather than from the movement itself.

Source African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth CenturyAllan H. Anderson

Held Differently

Anointing of the Sick, Rituals

Prayer for healing with the laying on of hands is offered by members of a congregation alongside the sacramental anointing, and it is offered for ordinary sickness and not only at the point of death.

Source Malines Document I: Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic RenewalLeon-Joseph Suenens
Confirmation, Rituals

The Catholic Charismatic Renewal reads confirmation as the sacramental place where the baptism in the Spirit it seeks was already given, so that what is sought is a release of what was conferred rather than a second sacrament.

Source Malines Document I: Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic RenewalLeon-Joseph Suenens
Denomination, Religious Organization & Structure

The movement carried Pentecostal practice into the historic churches without asking anyone to leave them, so it is not a denomination and cannot be counted as one. That refusal to separate is the thing that distinguishes it from classical Pentecostalism.

Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Exorcism, Practices

Deliverance ministry is prayed over a person by members of a congregation, commonly lay members, rather than performed by an appointed exorcist under a reserved rite, and it addresses ordinary affliction as well as possession.

Source Zion and Pentecost: The Spirituality and Experience of Pentecostal and Zionist/Apostolic Churches in South AfricaAllan H. Anderson
Rite of Exorcism, Rituals

The reserved rite is not the movement's instrument. Deliverance is prayed in the congregation and by the laity, which is precisely the point on which the churches that host the movement have had to rule.

Source Malines Document I: Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic RenewalLeon-Joseph Suenens

Objects and Practices of This Tradition

Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Doctrines
Source Malines Document I: Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic RenewalLeon-Joseph Suenens
Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Beliefs & Restrictions
Continuation of the spiritual gifts (charismata), Beliefs & Restrictions
Continuationism of the Spiritual Gifts, Doctrines
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Ecumenism, Doctrines
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Prophecy, Doctrines
Source The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001Vinson Synan (ed.)
Salvation by grace, Beliefs & Restrictions
The Holy Trinity, Beliefs & Restrictions
The resurrection of Christ, Beliefs & Restrictions
The Second Definite Work of Grace, Doctrines

Why this is disputed. The doctrine, in the strict Holiness sense of a definite, nameable, instantaneous second blessing following conversion, is the position later Holiness denominations formalized as a distinct article of faith. The Charismatic Movement that shares the same Wesleyan and Holiness ancestry generally speaks instead of being filled with the Holy Spirit as an ongoing or repeatable experience, and does not insist on the single definite crisis experience the classical doctrine names, so the connection reflects shared lineage more than shared present teaching.

Source Malines Document I: Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic RenewalLeon-Joseph Suenens
Sources
1. The Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001
Vinson Synan (ed.), Thomas Nelson, 2001The renewal across the historic churches, its ecumenical shape and the giftsView the Source
2. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd revised edition
F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2005s.v. Charismatic MovementView the Source
3. Malines Document I: Theological and Pastoral Orientations on the Catholic Charismatic Renewal
Leon-Joseph Suenens, Lumen Vitae Publishers, 1974The Catholic reading of baptism in the Spirit as a release of sacramental grace
African Reformation: African Initiated Christianity in the Twentieth Century
Allan H. Anderson, Africa World Press, 2001View the Source
Zion and Pentecost: The Spirituality and Experience of Pentecostal and Zionist/Apostolic Churches in South Africa
Allan H. Anderson, University of South Africa Press, 2000
The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth of the Global Pentecostal Movement
Cecil M. Robeck Jr., Thomas Nelson, 2006
The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements
James R. Lewis (ed.), Oxford University Press, 2004Renewalist and charismatic movements
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