Church movements

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CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Introduction

Creswell has suggested that when exploratory research is considered for a proposal, there is generally very little information that is written on the topic (Creswell 2003). Even so, he adds, when a theoretically oriented qualitative study is conducted, it is helpful to present the literature at the beginning of the proposal and as a separate section. This approach is also recommended because it is « often acceptable to an audience most familiar with the traditional, positivist, approach to literature reviews » (Creswell 2003:1).
This review of literature will focus on five areas that relate to the influential factors in the life of F.F. Bosworth: (1.) Biographical Writings (2.) Ministry/Personal Writings (3.) Doctrinal Writings (4.) Theory-based writings (5) Interview sources. In the interest of being thorough, the researcher collected historical, academic, biographical, journalistic, and theological research data for analysis and interpretation. The selection of data was based, first of all, on their reliability and accuracy, and the answers they provided to the following research questions: (1.) How did F.F. Bosworth develop from a small-town farm boy into a famous healing evangelist? (2.) How did his childhood and youthful experiences contribute to his success in the ministry? (3.) What were the critical experiences that he encountered? (4.) Who were the people that played a pivotal role in his life? (5.) What was the environment in which he grew up? (6.) What hardships or crises did he encounter? (7.) What was his educational background?
In addition to providing answers to these guiding questions, the data selection was based on the information that provided for the theoretical framework of the study. In this case, evidence relating to Social Cognitive Career Theory was identified and analyzed.
As noted in Section 1.8.3, SCCT, as developed by Lent et al (1994), focuses on « self-efficacy, expected outcome, and goal mechanisms and how they may interrelate with other person (e.g., gender), contextual (e.g., support system), and experiential/learning factors » (Lent et al 1994:79). SCCT provides « a conceptual framework that attempts to explain central, dynamic processes and mechanism through which (a) career and academic interests develop, (b) career-relevant choices are forged and enacted, and (c) performance outcomes are achieved” (Lent et al 1994:80).
The selection of data was also based on the information it provided for patterns and emerging themes. In this case, the data yielded essential information that covered the subject’s entire life history. It provided a full portrait from which a number of patterns could be identified and analyzed. As will be observed, the data used came from multiple sources. The bulk of it was collected from the Assemblies of God’s Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center, the Alliance Life Archives, the David Du Plessis Archive at Fuller Theological Seminary, and the Holy Spirit Research Center at Oral Roberts University. The quality of the data used for this research varied from academic and reliable to anecdotal and questionable. Some, surprisingly, even appeared apocryphal. While some of the material emerged from primary sources, much of it came from secondary sources.

Biographical Writings

Bosworth was born on Jan. 17, 1877, on a farm near Utica, Neb. (Perkins 1921). Incidentally, the town was officially established the same year of his birth. For insight into the community and environment in which he grew up, the researcher consulted such resources as McKee (1984) who provides a history of Lincoln, Nebraska, to which Utica was closely located. McKee describes Lincoln as a pioneer community which was thriving due to its massive train stations and farming resources. He provides numerous photographs of people, buildings and events of that time. While not an academic work by any means, McKee’s writing reveals the impact on the environmental influences on the people living in Lincoln and its surrounding towns during the late 1800s. During the late 1890s, Bosworth reportedly contracted TB and believed he was going to die. He took a train from Nebraska to Fitzgerald, Ga., where his family had moved. He wanted to say goodbye. While visiting Fitzgerald, he attended a revival meeting at a Methodist Church that was being conducted by Mattie Perry. She prayed for him and he was instantly healed (Perkins 1921; Bosworth 2000).
In the early 1900s, Bosworth and his family moved to Zion City, Ill., a Christian Utopia outside of Chicago that was created by John Alexander Dowie, a non-Pentecostal faith healer. Bosworth spent a number of years under Dowie’s ministry, along with John G.
Lake, another famous healing evangelist of that era. Almost immediately after arriving in Zion, Dowie hired Bosworth as his band leader. Because Zion played an important role in Bosworth’s career development, this study focuses on the literature that delves into the life of Dowie and his city. It includes the works of Cook (1996) who has written a comprehensive, critical work on Zion, as well as the works of Gordon Lindsay, whose family lived in Zion. Lindsay, who has written a biography of Dowie, was the chronicler of the Post-World War II revival.
In 1906, Pentecost came to Zion through a visit by Charles Parham. Although his teaching about “speaking in tongues” was initially condemned by Zion leaders, a growing number of the residents listened and soon experienced the Pentecostal baptism. This includes Bosworth, who first spoke in tongues on Oct. 18, 1906 (Gardiner 1990). Soon after this experience he accepted the call to preach and immediately began working with Cyrus B. Fockler, a former elder of Zion. Together they prayed for the sick and saw immediate results (Gardiner 1990; Fockler 192?.) For two years, Bosworth worked with Fockler and held revival meetings in Illinois and Indiana (Bosworth 1908
Bosworth later moved to Dallas, Texas, where he planted a church that held revival meetings for nearly ten years. In 1914 he became a founding member of the Assemblies of God denomination; however, he resigned a few years later over the issue of speaking in tongues (Sumrall 1995). In 1921, he held an evangelistic healing campaign in Detroit, Mich., that inspired P.C. Nelson to launch his own healing ministry (Nelson 1921). Nelson would later gain fame as a Greek scholar and founder of an Assemblies of God Bible school.

Early Biographies

Much of Bosworth’s life history, especially his early years, is recounted by Perkins (1921 1927), his first biographer. Although lacking in some areas, Perkins’ writings are useful in constructing a chronological timeline. Because her second biography was published in 1927, she does not include the last 30 years of Bosworth’s life. Aside from being hagiographic, Perkins’ work is made up of Bosworth’s personal testimony, his sermons, letters and articles previously published in newspapers and magazines. Perkins is cited by many other writers, popular and academic (Riss 1988a; Jacobsen 2003; King 2006; Harrell 1975). The term, “hagiography,” has been used to describe Perkins’ biography of Bosworth (Perkins 1921; Jacobsen 2003:291). Interestingly enough, the same could be said of other popular treatments of Bosworth’s life history (Blomgren 1963; Sumrall 1995; Crowder 2006). In most of these works, Bosworth is highly esteemed and revered. There is rarely any criticism. Some websites that purport to share a profile or brief biography also provide a narrative in which the evangelist is highly praised (Biography of Bosworth no date: http://healingandrevival.com/BioBosworth.htm). Perkins’ work (1921 & 1927) exudes admiration for Bosworth. She writes about him in pious language and clearly states her own support for his ministry. In the Preface to the 1921 edition she writes:
There is abundant evidence now before an amazed and growing public that God has thus appointed and anointed this man chosen from the ordinary walks of life—“absotively” [sic] without prestige in the Church or in the world—this man whose brief biographical sketch, from his birth to June of the present year, 1921, we are here producing…. (Perkins 1921:11-12).
Later, in Chapter 1, she writes of her “desire to show forth thru these pages the tenderly beautiful and magnanimously powerful grace of God, in and thru a wholly unpretentious life, from the beginning of that life to the present time” (Perkins 1921:14). Similar views are shared by Blomgren (1963) and Sumrall (1995). Unlike Perkins, Lindsay (1950), Stadsklev (1952) and Jorgensen (1994) write about Bosworth’s later years of ministry. They cover the time that Bosworth ministered with William Branham. However, in ways that are similar to Perkins, they endorse the ministry of Bosworth and write about him in ways that show their admiration for his work.

Church Movements

To fully understand the life and ministry of Bosworth, one must have knowledge of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, as well as the divine healing movements in the United States. For it was in the context of these movements that Bosworth gained fame and made his mark in history. Fortunately there are numerous books and other publications that chronicle the history of these movements. One of the most extensive resources on the Pentecostal and divine healing movement in the United States is Burgess and McGee’s Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (1988). However, given the nature of this source as a « dictionary, » it features only a profile of Bosworth and a few mentions of his work with his contemporaries. While broad in its treatment of the divine healing movement, the dictionary does not provide a critical analysis of Bosworth’s life history. At best, Burgess and McGee offer historical summaries and a good overview of the Pentecostal/Charismatic leaders and their contributions to the divine healing movements in the United States. Particular emphasis is placed on the leaders’ doctrines, organizations, publications and revival meetings.
Burgess and McGee’s work is perhaps second only to Harrell’s All Things are Possible (1975), in which he focuses on healing revivalists throughout most of the 20th century. Harrell gives detailed profiles of many of his subjects and offers a critical analysis of the key players of the movements. Even though Bosworth’s early years are omitted, Harrell does acknowledge Bosworth’s role in the ministry of William Branham, Gordon Lindsay and T.L. Osborn. He notes, for example, that Bosworth was a mentor and advisor for the young tent revivalists, and he instructed them on both the marketing techniques of revival meetings and on the doctrine of divine healing. Harrell also reports a meeting Bosworth had with Oral Roberts in the late 1940s.It was during this meeting that Bosworth gave a ringing endorsement of Robert’s ministry. His letter of endorsement was featured in Healing Waters (Bosworth 1949:4), Robert’s ministry publication. This is particularly noteworthy since Roberts and Branham were the main leaders of the post-World War II revival.
Hardesty (2003) is one of the most recent voices to write about Bosworth and the role he played in the Holiness and Pentecostal Movements. What she writes is not exactly new, in terms of his life history, but her work is significant because it gives context to Bosworth’s ministry. It shows where and how he fits in the larger church movements, particularly those of the Holiness and Pentecostal traditions. Since her emphasis is on « Faith Cures, » Hardesty uses an engaging narrative to show how the doctrine of divine healing originated and developed throughout the 1800s and early 1900s. She outlines the controversies surrounding the teaching and the debates involving its practice. The overall thrust of the work might be summed up in the first sentence of her Introduction (2003:1): « This is a book about faith healing — not about faith healers. » For this reason, she focuses on the doctrine and practice of divine healing, and not the life history of its proponents. Consequently, only brief passages are shared about Bosworth. While she analyzes the doctrine in a historical context, she does not provide analysis of Bosworth’s life history. “Hardesty clearly states that the book is about faith healing, not about faith healers, and yet her approach is largely biographical as she traces the lives of specific people whose prayers for healing were answered,” writes Feia (2004:368-369). “She does, however, emphasize the prayer of faith over healing as a divine gift, and in that sense is true to her purpose.” In her review of Hardesty, Feia concludes that she “offers a distinctly historical survey of faith healing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries” and “that she writes from the perspectives of those who were healed as well as those who prayed for them, and allows their testimonies to stand on their own terms” (Feia 2004:370). Although useful in recounting important events in the divine healing movements, Hardesty’s work has generated questions about her approach to the topic. According to Mullin (2005):

Table of Contents 
Summary 
Abbreviations 
List of Figures 
Acknowledgments 
Declaration 
Dedication 
CHAPTER 1 Introduction 
1.1 General background for the study
1.2 Purpose of the study
1.3 Guiding questions
1.4 Delimitations and limitations
1.5 Definition of terms
1.6 Assumptions
1.7 Significance of the study
1.8 Overview of the findings
1.8.1 Emerging patterns and themes
1.8.2 Influential factors
1.8.3 Social Cognitive Career Theory
1.8.3.1 His self-efficacy and out-come expectancies
1.8.3.2 His interest
1.8.3.3 His choice
1.8.3.4 His performance
1.8.4 Biblical examples
1.9 Chapter outline
1.10 Conclusion
CHAPTER 2 Review of the Literature 
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Biographical writings
2.2.1 Early biographies
2.2.2 Church movements
2.2.3 Post-World War II
2.2.4 Other biographical sources
2.3 Ministry/Personal writings
2.3.1 Common topics
2.3.2 Inter-denominational emphasis
2.3.3 Famous book
2.3.4 Apologetics
2.3.5 Testimonials
2.3.6 Dogmatic tendencies
2.3.7 Ministry magazine
2.3.8 Recordings
2.4 Doctrinal writings
2.4.1 Prominent critics
2.4.2 British Israelism
2.5 Theory-based writings
2.5.1 Simson’s research on Faith Healers
2.5.2 Pentecostal perspective
2.6 Interview sources
2.6.1 Revealing interviews
2.6.2 Attempted interviews
2.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER 3 Methodology 
3.1 Theoretical framework
3.2 Type of design
3.3 Data collection strategies
3.4 Data analysis
3.5 Methods of achieving validity
3.6 Personal background and potential bias
3.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER 4 Biographical Overview and Discussion of Patterns 
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Biographical overview
4.3 Pattern #1: Employment
4.4 Pattern #2: Music
4.5 Pattern #3: Crises/Conflicts
4.6 Pattern #4: Women ministers
4.7 Pattern #5: Divine Healing
4.8 Pattern #6: Missions
4.9 Conclusion
CHAPTER 5 Findings and Analysis 
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Influential Factors
5.3 Theoretical analysis
5.4 Biblical analysis
5.5 Research propositions
5.6 Significance of findings
5.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER 6 Conclusions and implications 
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Summary of chapters
6.3 Summary of findings
6.4 Conclusions
6.5 Contributions
6.6 Limitations
6.7 Implications
6.8 Recommendations for further research
6.8 Concluding thought
APPENDIX List of Figures 
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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