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Book announcement: Catch the Fire
New book by Michael Wilkinson and Peter Althouse
book cover
Michael Wilkinson and Peter F. Althouse, Catch the Fire: Soaking Prayer and Charismatic Renewal. Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2014
A recent phenomenon of charismatic renewal took place in Toronto in the
mid-1990s. Commonly known as the “Toronto Blessing” and operated by the
former Vineyard Church leaders John and Carol Arnott, the renewal was
defined by reports of uncontrollable laughter, weeping, speaking in
tongues, animal noises, and falling on the floor during worship.
Sympathetic Christians embraced these practices while others who
believed that this form of worship boarded on spectacle rejected them.
By the end of the 1990s most people thought that the renewal was over.
Yet, in the first decade of the 21st century, the authors-a sociologist
and a theologian-heard rumors that the Toronto church, now known as
“Catch the Fire” ministries, was still holding mass meetings with
upwards of 2,000 people in attendance. They also learned of an emerging
practice of “soaking prayer,” an adaption of Pentecostal-charismatic
prayer that, participants and leaders claim, facilitates and expands the
reception of divine love in order to give it away in acts of
forgiveness, reconciliation, compassion, and benevolence. Soaking, the
authors reveal, is a metaphor for practices like resting in the Spirit,
prayer for spiritual gifts, healing, unstanched prophecy, and
impartation, and supports overall charismatic spirituality. Attending
“Catch the Fire” conferences, churches, and house meetings in the United
States, Canada, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, Wilkinson and
Althouse observed firsthand how people soak, what it means to soak, and
why soaking is considered an important practice among charismatics.
