Main Street Mystics: The Toronto Blessing and Reviving Pentecostalism

As a participant researcher of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement, Poloma (emeritus, sociology, U. of Akron) applies social psychological theories to the construction of revival beliefs and mystical experiences in the P/C subculture known since the 1990s as the Toronto Blessing. Particular attention is paid to renewal music, healing and other bodily manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Ethnographic case studies of P/C churches in the US illustrate linkage of the mystical self and body, and the rise of urban "power evangelism." Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR