Charles Fox Parham

Who was Charles Fox Parham?

Charles F. Parham was an American preacher and evangelist. Together with William J. Seymour, Parham was one of the two central figures in the development and early spread of Pentecostalism. It was Parham who associated glossolalia with the baptism in the Holy Spirit, a theological connection crucial to the emergence of Pentecostalism as a distinct movement. Parham's ideas continues to spark controversy, especially regarding his attitudes and beliefs on race by inviting both African Americans and Mexican Americans to join his new movement. Parham was the first preacher to articulate Pentecostalism's distinctive doctrine of evidential tongues, and to expand the movement. Goff argues that Parham was shaped by the frontier culture of Kansas, which incorporated a thriving popular evangelicalism. Parham used contemporary theological ideas to craft a message that it addressed the felt needs of the profoundly religious but economically poor people of Kansas.