Abstract This article examines the historical vision and theological thought of Bishop Ithiel Conrad Clemmons, a prominent Pentecostal historian, ecumenist, and theologian. By exploring Clemmons’s conceptualization of God’s active involvement in human history on behalf of the oppressed, this article reveals his critique of racial bias in the chronicling of North American religious history, particularly in Pentecostal historiography. Understanding his theological and historical vocation as that of reading “the hidden but powerfully present footprints of God in the affairs of humankind and nations,” Clemmons offers a hierophantic vision attuned to the in-breakings of the divine in human history. By centering Clemmons’s thought, the article offers a nuanced understanding and critique of the contradictions and incongruities in the historiography of North American Pentecostalism.
Eric Lewis Williams (Sun,) studied this question.