F. F. Bosworth was the only major living link between the late-nineteenth-century divine healing movement that gave birth to Pentecostalism and the post-World-War II healing revival that brought Pentecostalism into American popular culture. At once on the fringes and in the mainstream of American Pentecostalism, Bosworth has largely been ignored by historians. Richmann demonstrates that Bosworth's story not only draws together disparate threads of the Pentecostal story but critiques traditional interpretations of speaking in tongues, Azusa Street, denominational affiliation, divine healing, the relationship to fundamentalism, the Word of Faith movement, and eschatology. In this critique, Richmann provides a much-needed critical biography of Bosworth as well as a fresh interpretation of Pentecostalism.
Christopher J. Richmann is affiliate faculty in Religion and Assistant Director for the Academy for Teaching and Learning at Baylor University. His articles have been published in Pneuma, the Journal of the European Pentecostal Association, the Wesleyan Theological Journal, and Lutheran Quarterly.
“Living in Bible Times is an important biography of F. F. Bosworth—a significant, yet understudied shaper of early Pentecostalism, whose influence endures to the present through his widely read Christ the Healer. Christopher Richmann rightly foregrounds the theme of supernaturalism, epitomized by divine healing (more than speaking in tongues). This captivating and informative book should be essential reading for anyone who wants to understand Pentecostalism or prayer for healing.”
—Candy Gunther Brown, author of Testing Prayer: Science and Healing
“Living in Bible Times is both a lively biography of an underappreciated figure and a much-needed historical corrective, recovering the central place in early Pentecostalism of those independent currents that elude traditional narratives built around Azusa Street or denominational expressions of the movement. Deeply grounded in primary sources, it holds special value for those interested in the history and theology of the divine healing movement or links between classical Pentecostalism and neo-Pentecostalism.”
—Roger Robins, University of Tokyo