The Recency Bias of the Internet
One of the great challenges of the Internet is that it came online after so many other wonderful information technologies like the printing press, radio, tape recording, newspapers, magazines, and so on. While much of that material has been “digitized” in so far as it has been scanned and uploaded, so much of it is inaccessible, hard to find, and not truly adapted to the current version of the Internet (are we on 3.0 now?). As a result the Internet has a terrible recency bias. Whatever was published most recently gets the most click-throughs, links, hits, and eyeballs. Oftentimes, the better information requires a little more digging—not that we have to go through dusty old boxes of papers, but we need to know where to search and look for what. We need to understand the stories and beliefs that drove people to do what they did.
Finding Pre-Online Sources
I have been reading a bit about the history of the charismatic movement of the 1960s–1980s and finding that the sources available are thin. That is, very few well documented books about this era exist. However, the recent book Age of the Spirit by John Maiden (Oxford, 2023) is a welcome exception. It is a superbly documented book of the “Spiritscape” of those times. But what about contemporary sources? No one in the ‘70s had a website or a blog, but what they did have was magazines galore! The way you got your message out was through magazine production: articles, photographs, letters to the editors, columns, and so on. This was also the dawning age of the cassette tape, so plenty of teaching and information was distributed through tape sets you could buy from listings in the magazines. I’m interested in tracking down and posting links to all the charismatic magazines to help researchers find their way into this material. I came up with a list and I thought that some other people might find it helpful.
Charismatic Renewal Magazines From the 1960s-1980s
Trinity magazine (1961–66)
Trinity was the first mainline Protestant charismatic magazine. It was launched by editor Jean Stone, a parishioner at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Van Nuys, California. It was there in 1960 that the pastor Dennis Bennett announced that he had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, which divided his congregation. The magazine was only published for about five years: 1961–66. http://www.societyofstephen.org/pubs.php (I have no idea why there’s a chicken in the picture!)
Pastoral Newsletter (1967–1970)
This informal newsletter was published by the Catholic/ecumenical charismatic groups in Ann Arbor and South Bend, which would soon become True House, People of Praise and the Word of God. It was succeeded by New Covenant. I have not found an online version of this newsletter yet.
New Covenant magazine (1971–2002)
New Covenant was the official voice of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services Committee, originally edited by Ralph Martin and published in Ann Arbor. While it was largely for the Catholic movement, it included a strong ecumenical flavor with some articles and announcements by non-Catholic charismatic writers and groups. You can find a complete archive here: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000554189
New Wine (1969–1986)
New Wine was originally launched by Eldon Purvis and his Holy Spirit Teaching Ministry (HSTM), which later became Christian Growth Ministries (CGM). It was the principal publication of the so-called “Shepherding Movement” of the 1970s led by the “Fort Lauderdale Five”: Derek Prince, Ern Baxter, Charles Simpson, Don Basham, and Bob Mumford. https://csmpublishing.org/publications/new-wine-magazine/
Pastoral Renewal (1976–1990)
Pastoral Renewal was a monthly quasi-academic pastoral publication published by the Word of God community in Ann Arbor, Michigan for leaders and pastors in the charismatic movement. It was edited by Peter S. Williamson. It ceased publication after the Ann Arbor community broke apart. I have not found it online yet, but it is available in quite a few libraries around the country under OCLC number 4303284 and ISSN, 0744-8279. A few books were published under its auspices, for example, Summons to Faith and Renewal (1983); Christianity in Conflict (1986); and Christian Allies in a Secular Age (1987). Pastoral Renewal was briefly succeeded by Faith & Renewal: For Christian Leaders, but I think that only lasted one issue.
Renewal (1966–)
Renewal was based in the United Kingdom, published by Fountain Trust and edited by Anglican priest Michael Harper. It launched in 1966 and eventually merged with a UK magazine called Christianity. I have not yet found a complete digital archive, just one issue from 1966.
Logos Journal (1971–1981)
Another magazine that existed for a very limited time frame was the Logos Journal (no, not the same as this one or that one). It was published by Dan Malachuk and Logos International Fellowship bimonthly for about a ten- year period (1971-1981). I have not been able to confirm exactly when it started and ended. I was able to find about a dozen digitized issues from 1979-1981 at Oral Roberts. Perhaps more are out there somewhere. Oral Roberts University, in fact, has a nice collection of digitized periodicals related to Pentecostalism.
Full Gospel Business Men’s Voice (1952–)
The Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International was founded in Irvine, CA by Demos Shakarian in 1952 as a coordinating body for Latter Rain Pentecostal groups. They have published a magazine ever since and all the archives are available online.
- 1953–1961 at Oral Roberts University library
- 1960–2024 at Full Gospel Business Mens’ Fellowship International
If you want an even fuller listing of charismatic periodicals, check out p. 238 in Age of the Spirit by John Maiden (Oxford, 2023). I’m not sure if anyone is looking for this material, but there is so much out there, just under the surface of the search results on the Internet and I hope that these archives will be useful to you.