The Holiness-Pentecostal experience in South African Zionism

This article argues that the African Initiated Churches (AICs) cannot be served well with an interpretive paradigm that radically delineates their theology from the mainline churches. Particular reference is made to the holiness-Pentecostal experience as prevalent, particularly in the initial stages, and perhaps in a modified form at later polemic stages, in the AICs. Use is made of the case of South African Zionism, in order to demonstrate a thesis whose tenacity runs through Central African Prophet, East African Spirit Church, and the West African Aladura movements. This discredits an interpretive dichotomy that regards the Zionist Churches as unorthodox and rebellious and paying insufficient attention to historical sources, which demonstrate continuities between renewalist experiences in the missionary-founded churches and the Zionist congregations.