Abstract:

The ecclesiology of Lewi Pethrus was formed in the early period of Pentecostal revival and built on elements from Pietism, Holiness and Baptist theology and historiography. The experience of the Spirit, Spirit baptism, spiritual gifts and the fivefold ministries was part of a belief in the restoration of God’s assembly in the last days. A strong tension developed in practice between the radical congregationalism inherent in the Baptist and Holiness traditions and the new experience of the Spirit. From a historical perspective, situated in the Swedish social and political context of the late 1910s and the 1920s, Pethrus’s radical congregationalism was a parallel to political movements that built on the democratic ideals of older social movements, but radicalized them. In the later part of his life, Pethrus partially revised his congregationalism and emphasized the sovereign move of the Spirit.

Author: Torbjörn Aronson