Morris L. Davis

Spirit-Filled Protestantism

History & Biography

“In Spirit-filled Protestantism, Luther Oconer revises and revitalizes the history of the arrival of American holiness revivalism into the Philippine Islands via Methodist Episcopal missionaries. Following revival practices and doctrines as they made their way into the islands behind the American military and alongside the larger colonial project, Oconer re-narrates a tired and simplistic one-way story of western religious imperialism into a stirring drama of pan-Pacific ‘Holy Spirit revival.’ Tracing the movement and subsequent reconstructions of holiness thought, practice, and performance through revivals in India that spread to the Philippines, Oconer provides a full and convincing portrayal of Filipino intellectual, emotional, and institutional engagement with the religious offerings of the missionaries. This culto Pentecostal, which Oconer argues opened the space for Filipino participation in the global Pentecostal healing movement in the 1950’s, became the kernel for the development of Filipino Methodist identities, practices, and schisms.”