Australasian Pentecostal Studies: Twenty-Five Years, Open Access
Australasian Pentecostal Studies has been publishing since 1999, which makes it one of the longest-running open-access journals in the field. It is sponsored by Alphacrucis College, carries ISSN 1440-1991, and is listed in the Australian ERA research register.
Every submission goes through confidential peer review, assessed for methodological rigour and contribution to scholarship. Access is immediate and free, on the stated principle that public availability serves the global exchange of knowledge.
Why a journal from the antipodes is useful here
Australian and New Zealand Pentecostalism grew in a society that secularised early and thoroughly — the opposite of the Brazilian situation, where the movement expanded inside a culture saturated with religion.
That contrast is analytically productive. Reading how Pentecostal theology argues for itself in a context of indifference sharpens the question of what it is arguing for in a context of enthusiasm. The comparison exposes assumptions that stay invisible when you only read your own case.
What to expect, and what not to
The journal is interdisciplinary and contextual by design, so systematic theology appears alongside history, sociology and practical theology rather than in a dedicated section. It publishes annually, with occasional special issues, which means the archive grows slowly and rewards patience.
Do not come looking for Latin America — the regional focus is genuine and the coverage of the Global South outside Oceania is thin.
Working method
- Read for argument structure, not for data. Ask how the author defends a Pentecostal claim before a sceptical audience, then test that move on your own material.
- Mine the twenty-five years of archive. A quarter century of a single journal shows how the field’s questions shifted, which no individual article reveals.
- Watch the Alphacrucis authors. The college trains much of Australasian Pentecostal scholarship, and the same names recur with developing arguments.
Open the journal
Australasian Pentecostal StudiesArchive since 1999
