My dissertation argues that pentecostal experiences, which constitute a core component of the African American religious tradition, engender a spiritual epistemology that is able to instigate and undergird prophetic social activism. I define “pentecostal” experience as those experiences that include preparation for, awareness of, or reaction to what is described as the immediate presence of God. This dissertation examines phenomenologically the pentecostal encounters of three religious figures representing different time periods. Amanda Berry Smith represents the late nineteenth century holiness tradition, Martin Luther King, Jr. the mid twentieth century progressive Baptist tradition, and John Perkins a blend of holiness, Baptist and evangelical traditions.

As a superordinate term, “pentecostal” designates the supernatural, mystical, and ecstatic types divine/human religious experience in which humans are directly aware of the immediate presence of God. Supernatural experiences include miracles of healing, exorcisms, and demonstrations of prophecy, spiritual discernment, and what Charismatic churches call gifts of the Spirit. Mystical experience refers to human encounter with the divine presence realized through contemplation and meditation, and ecstatic experiences include what is often referred to in academic literature as “possession” by the Holy Spirit.

I read the discursive and non-discursive pentecostal experiences of these actors through the lens of an “affective embodied pneumatological episteme” that is constructed by integrating insights derived from primary, ethnographic, and historical narratives in dialogue with anthropological and philosophical theories of embodiment and affectivity. This dissertation attempts to recover the significance of a historically African American mode of experiencing God and its implications for the pursuit of prophetic social action.