Main Street Mystics

The Toronto Blessing and Reviving Pentecostalism

By (author) Margaret Poloma

Publication date:

07 October 2003

Length of book:

296 pages

Publisher

AltaMira Press

Dimensions:

233x160mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780759103535

On January 20, 1994 the worshippers at the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church began to feel the Holy Spirit move them. They began to laugh uncontrollably, collapse to the floor, stagger as if drunk. But what was truly startling in this occurrence—now commonly known as the Toronto Blessing—is that these manifestations keep appearing at the Toronto church and have sparked a worldwide charismatic revival. Visitors from around the world have come and started revivals in their home churches upon return. In Main Street Mystics, Margaret Poloma explains what is happening with this contemporary charismatic revival without explaining it away. From her unique position as both a scholar and a pilgrim, Poloma offers an intimate account of the movement while always attempting to understand it through the lenses of social science. She looks at Pentecostalism as a form of mysticism, but a mysticism that engages Pentecostals and charismatics in the everyday world. With its broad overview and up-close portraits, Main Street Mystics is essential for anyone wanting to understand the ever renewing movement of Pentecostalism.
I've now finished Main Street Mystics and I think it's just great. No one writes this kind of on-the-ground ethnography with the verve of Margaret Poloma. She has leaped into a fascinating and significant current religious movement armed with an impressive grasp of religious history, and she tells a story well. A really fine and timely book.