Black Fire

I received Estrelda Y. Alexander's Black Fire: One Hundred Years of African American Pentecostalism from my brother-in-law, who often receives free books to review. He warned me that it was like a textbook, which was why he didn't plan on reading it, but thought that maybe I'd give it a try. I often claim that I'll read anything (which is nearly true), so I took up the challenge.

Black Fire is quite like a textbook. This review will be short because I don't have much to say. The back of the book claims that it would be good both for the scholar and for the general public. Not true. This book is not for the general public. Alexander spent quite a lot of time researching and compiling information about virtually every branch of Pentecostalism into one text. She went about this because very few history texts exist that cover Pentecostal denominations that are primarily African-American. 

In some sections the reader is treated to some interesting history. Those sections were pleasant to read, but most of it comes from the days of William Seymour, and just over a year ago I read a book that thoroughly covered the history of the Azusa Street revival. The rest of the narrative history comes towards the end as Alexander covers some neo-Pentecostal groups. I enjoyed the last 20 pages or so. The rest of the book delves into all different sub-denominations within Pentecostalism. Occasionally Alexander breaks to talk about certain individuals. Each person or denomination gets covered in anywhere between one and four pages. The end result is a torrent of names (of people and denominations) and doctrinal positions that wound up creating a confused soup in my brain.

As a side note, the Bishop of my church - Bishop Joseph Garlington - is mentioned twice in the book, both times very glowingly. That was a pleasant surprise - Alexander had a lot of criticism for most of the church leaders she covers.

This book does not have an appeal that would reach out to the general public. Exhaustively researched, Black Fire possesses value to researchers and church historians. But it really shouldn't be read cover to cover - that was a mistake. I don't think I wound up learning much. Its role ought to be as an occasional resource for information about specific Pentecostal movements, churches, or leaders.

Rating: N/A - it's a great resource, but not really a cover-to-cover read

98/100