‘A gem in the water’: a contribution to contemporary Pentecostal theology on Baptism of the Holy Spirit from a study of Willis Hoover’s Chilean Methodist Pentecostalism

This thesis defines and categorises the theology of Willis Hoover, with particular emphasis on his understanding of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and his theological transition from sanctification Methodism through an initial Azusa-style Pentecostalism to his eventual Methodist Pentecostal position. This theological transition, hitherto only partially explored and explained, was germinal to Chilean Pentecostalism and uniquely conducive to fomenting and enabling the spread and influential growth of the revival, pioneer to Latin America, which began under his pastorate in Valparaiso in 1909.

The study moves through, examines, and analyses four historical stages of Hoover’s encounter with Baptism of the Holy Spirit: Seeking, Receiving, Developing, and Administering, between 1895 (arrival in Chile) and 1936 (Hoover’s death). The demarcation of these four historical stages are related chronologically, and explains how Hoover developed his uniquely Chilean theology on the Pentecostal Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Founded on his Methodist inheritance, he was influenced by Pentecostalism, particularly from Mukti, India, the Stone church in Chicago, and the Azusa Street Revival.

From this Methodist Pentecostal pneumatological base, examined with theological and historical hermeneutic methodology (especially Bernardo Campos’ principle of Pentecostality), the study will also offer a proposed solution to the problems related to Hoover’s subsequentialist Pentecostal teaching. In so doing, it proposes an emphasis on a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit and formulates a pneumatological theory of ‘Pneuma plasticity’. The thesis seeks to discover how this Hooverian transition could open and contribute to a valuable missional and ecumenical conversation concerning the Pentecostal phenomenon in Chile and beyond.