Religion for Modernity : Martin Wells Knapp and the Radical Holiness Network of the American Progressive Era

Martin Wells Knapp (1853-1901) is an often mentioned but little understood figure in American and World Christian historiography. As the progenitor of Pentecostalism as well as of several large Holiness denominations, he was clearly an important figure. This essay seeks to place Knapp in his historical context, so that the attractiveness of Knapp’s social and theological vision might be better understood and appreciated. Knapp, as other were doing, described his vision as “Pentecostal,” a term that would be later adopted by his students into modern Pentecostalism. Knapp understood “Pentecostal” to be a biblical approach to life and ministry, undertaken according to the paradigm of the biblical Acts of the Apostles and the life of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels. Knapp pastoral ministry in Adrian, Michigan, and his multi-faceted urban ministry in Cincinnati, Ohio, are discussed using a five point heuristic grid: Urbanization, Industrialization and Modernization, Democratization: The Issue of Power; Aspirations for Humanization; Global vision in a period of American ascendancy; and “Pentecost:” a paradigm for the new reality. The article concludes that Knapp found an effective theological synthesis and approach to ministry well suited to the conditions of American society. As a preacher-theologian of the American progressive era, he was part of that movement to purify American culture and transform its values.