The problem with "waves" : mapping charismatic potential in Italian Protestantism, 1890–1929

This article explores the problem of using a heuristic such as waves to organize historical accounts of pentecostal and charismatic movements. By looking closely at the rise of Italian Pentecostalism and its co-location with multiple sources of revivalism and denominational formation, it seeks to demonstrate that network approaches to modelling pentecostal emergence are a more accurate form of heuristic. In the case study, much material not previously made available in English is used, demonstrating the linguistic, cultural, temporal/geographic limitations of wave theory.