Eschatology and the Fortunes of Early British Pentecostalism

Abstract

Pentecostal Christianity's first significant manifestation on British soil is associated with the Sunderland clergyman, the Revd Alexander A. Boddy (1854–1939). Under his tutelage a recognizable movement came to forge its identity in Edwardian Britain. One of the notable features of this religious grouping was its propensity to 'talk about the end of the world'. This article explores both the bleakness of prominent eschatological views and the unique emphasis which enabled Boddy and his sympathisers, somewhat surprisingly, to marry dire prognostications with hope, optimism and exuberance. The ability to do so empowered the movement to consolidate and embark upon a second and more expansive phase of its evolution in the aftermath of the First World War.