Pentecostalism and National Politics 2016-2022

As part of our multi-episode series about Pentecostalism – a relatively unknown and perhaps misunderstood, fast growing, and very large part of Christianity, we will be exploring Pentecostalism and its support of Donald Trump between 2016 and 2022.

Valerie Cooper is associate professor of religion and society and black church studies at Duke Divinity School. Using historical and theological methodologies, her wide-ranging scholarship examines issues of religion, race, politics, and popular culture. She has published essays on African American evangelicals (particularly in Pentecostalism and the Holiness Movement), on African Americans’ use of the Bible, and with political scientist Corwin Smidt, co-authored an essay on the roles of religion and race in the 2008 election of President Barack Obama. Her article on “Black Theology” is forthcoming in the Oxford Handbook of Political Theology.

Her book, Word, Like Fire: Maria Stewart, the Bible, and the Rights of African Americans, analyzes the role of biblical hermeneutics in the thought of Maria Stewart, a pioneering 19th-century African American woman theologian and political speaker. Cooper is currently working on Segregated Sundays, a book evaluating the successes and failures of the racial reconciliation efforts of Christian congregations and ministries from the 1990s to the present.

Dale Coulter is an ordained minister in the Church of God (Cleveland, TN) and professor of historical theology at Pentecostal Theological Seminary. He studied the Middle Ages while completing his DPhil at the University of Oxford. Much of his work has centered on the twelfth century abbey of St. Victor, having published a monograph on Richard of St. Victor. His most recent work is a collection of essays he co-edited titled, The Spirit, the Affections, and the Christian Tradition. He has authored a popular work on holiness and occasionally writes at the online platform for the journal First Things, which is published by the Institute for Religion and Public Life. He has also written articles for outlets such as The Washington Post, Christianity Today, The Stream, Keryx, and Seed Bed. He is a past president of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. Dale has also served as co-editor of PNEUMA: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies (2010-2015) and currently serves on its editorial board. He is also involved in ecumenical discussions between Orthodox and Pentecostals as well as a participating member of Evangelicals and Catholics Together.