Peter Marina, Getting The Holy Ghost Urban Ethnography In A Brooklyn Pentecostal Tongue Speaking Church (Lexington Books, 2013). 322 Pp. $80.00 Hardback.

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480

book reviews

Peter Marina

Getting the Holy Ghost: Urban Ethnography in a Brooklyn Pentecostal Tongue-

Speaking Church(Lexington Books, 2013). 322 pp. $80.00 hardback.

Holy Ghost Church member Denver stated that “It’s all about relationship. Everything in life is about relationships. And that’s what happened. Relation- ships have developed, bonds have been made, and commitments have been made to one another … Everybody has a name, face, identity, and purpose within the organization, within the church. They may not see it in them- selves, but everyone has a purpose.” (264) Peter Marina’sGetting the Holy Ghost: Urban Ethnography in a Brooklyn Pentecostal Tongue-Speaking Churchprovides a viable and authentic voice to the Holy Ghost Church congregation of working class African-American and African Caribbean in the Brownsville neighbor- hood of Brooklyn. Marina seeks to inquire about the influence a small black church has in a large and gentrifying city through the lenses of global Pente- costalism in the twenty-first century. Using ethnography informed by partic- ipant observation places the outsider within the pews while the insiders are free to express their belief. His informants were listed as Denver, Amelie, Deb- bie, Lisa, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, Gracie, Theresa, Pastor and Jamie Redford. The spectrum of informants provided insight into the rank and file, leadership, women and disaffiliated members.

The book is trisected into sections dealing with history and methodology, city and congregational structure, and prognostication about the future of small Black urban congregations. The first part provides the readers with histor- ical and cultural understanding of the Pentecostal movement with the requisite mention of Parham and Seymour all well-documented with reports from the Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life and UN-HABITAT. Of note for Marina is the “calling for all the underclass throughout the world to create an alternative- meaning system through a religious movement” (19). The failure of secular institutions to ameliorate inequality and poverty might possibly contribute to the rise of Pentecostal churches and might possibly be the leverage needed to level the global playing field. Marina asserts that successes and struggles in the Holy Ghost Church form a type of urban congregation whose impact influences families and communities thus strengthening society. “The individual process of becoming Pentecostal provides a road-mapping voyage into the church and canvasses an intimate view into the lives of its members” (4). Marina asserts that, through edifying the individual impoverished communities reconstruct their identity and provide solutions and voice for their communities. Concur- rently, the desire to ameliorate the conditions of working and underclass living, and gender equity is theoretical and not demonstrative in practice.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi: 10.1163/15700747-03602016

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Chapter three examines the physical and organizational structure of the Holy Ghost Church. Church membership is arranged according to elite, core, supportive and marginal groupings. Women are represented in all levels. How- ever, “[d]espite the access to rewards and recognition women receive, [the church] does little to curtail the traditional gender roles oppressive to women. Even women, with high elite standing, strikingly and visually apparent in the services, preside, lay hands, and pray over women. Seldom do they do the same [as men] … [However] the gifts of the spirit transcend gender roles, but within limits of a male-dominated power structure” (62) The functions of deacons and deaconesses span the gamut from building maintenance by deacons to cater- ing the senior/visiting pastors bythe deaconesses. The fleeting observation of gender limitations could have gone deeper into the gender demographics of the African American/Caribbean peoples of Brownsville.

Part two provides detail about the informants and the congregational cul- ture of the Holy Ghost Church through chronicling activities such as men’s meetings, interventions, Bible meetings and water baptisms; the voices of per- sonal and congregational ebb and flow makes for a rich tapestry of the Holy Ghost Church. Select members provide biographical stories about their lives before and after salvation as well as interludes when God intervened. Chapter six explores the concept of “God Hunting.” This process “combines scholarly ideas on religious conversion and postmodern ideas” on conversion an unusual synergy for analysis whereby the Pentecostal believer initiates their religious quest in seeking God. Marina acknowledges his scholarly limitations with Pen- tecostal culture in regards to “God’s timing,” the ubiquitous phraseology used to explain the how and when of divine movements in the life of a believer.

Part three assesses the viability of the Black Tongue Speaking Church and the individual consequences to “becoming Pentecostal.” Marina juxtaposes the scholarship of O’Dea and Yinger to Margret Poloma to compare and contrast the smaller versus the larger Pentecostal churches. The smaller church reaches and influences the individual at a level that reassures enduring change and commitment. To explore the Black church Marina uses Lincoln and Mamiya dialectical model. Chapter nine’s discussion of “Holy Ghost Capital” contextu- alizes the liberation of glossalalia. Marina indicates that glossolalia empow- ers believers in three areas. Tongue-speakers subvert the dominant culture through the purity of neo-linguistics offered by the Holy Spirit. Second, tongue speaking moves belief from a sterile religion to an intimate relationship. And third, the Holy Ghost Capital empowers believers with an alternative form of power that elevates one’s emotional status.

In essence, Marina provides a fairly objective, well-cited ethnography of a semi-autonomous Pentecostal church. His confession about being a non-

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religious, non-African Cuban-American, learned of the church through a col- league who belonged, leans credence to his search for objectivity (287). Schol- ars in the humanities will find this work a useful model to make inquiry of the shifting urban landscape. While scholars in theology and religious studies will benefit from learning quantifying measures the impact positive church mem- bership has in the life of believers. Also, the growing global chasm between have and have not strategically positions Pentecostalism within the formula of a solution. The inestimable power of the Holy Spirit continues to fascinate scholars across many disciplines. It is imperative that Pentecostal scholars and students critically examine the institutional church for its benefits and deficits to the life of a believer, local parish and larger academic world.

Ida E. Jones

Assistant Curator of Manuscripts Moorland Spingarn Research Center Howard University Washington, dc

iejones@howard.edu

PNEUMA 36 (2014) 457–512

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