BOOKS
With Doris Gomez, Bridge-Building Leadership: A Biblical Approach to Human Flourishing Across Ethnoracial, Socioeconomic, and Gender Divides, Christian Faith Perspectives in Leadership and Business series (forthcoming with Palgrave Macmillan).
This book examines the role of leadership in addressing ethno-racial, socio-economic, and gender divisions. Through an analysis of the Apostle Paul’s writings, the authors investigate how leadership can bridge societal divides and facilitate human flourishing, conceptualized within a theistic framework of humanity’s stewardship of God’s creation.
Bridge-building leadership, rooted in the finished work of Jesus Christ—who through His death on the Cross and His Resurrection built the ultimate bridge between God and humanity—transcends differences of race, class, and gender, fostering relationality and inclusion. The authors propose a relational and cross-cultural model that embraces diversity to counteract division and misuse of power. The goal is to reconcile humanity first to the Creator and, flowing from that restored relationship, to one another, thereby achieving human flourishing.
Differentiating bridge-building leadership from other leadership models, this volume employs themes of reconciliation, social justice, and neighborly love to present a framework for overcoming societal differences. It will appeal to researchers and practitioners interested in the application of a Christ-centered model of leadership in contemporary contexts to promote human flourishing.
Beyond the Evangelical Gender Roles Gridlock: Reimagining Paul’s Views on Women, Marriage, and Ministry. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2024.
Present-day Evangelicalism represents a microcosm of broader tensions over male and female gender roles, with some denominations carefully delimiting women’s leadership roles, especially the female pastor, and many others supporting them. The letters attributed to Paul the Apostle contain several divisive passages on the meaning of manhood and womanhood. Dated and dubious readings of these have led some, Christians and non-Christians alike, to conclude that Paul wrote with misogynistic intent. Others quote them to justify Christian patriarchalism. Beyond the Evangelical Gender Roles Gridlock reassesses what Paul said about women, reinterpreting his claims on marriage and ministry leadership in light of his first-century worldview. This book proposes a nuanced theological egalitarian approach with significant implications for renewing twenty-first-century congregations, homes, and society.
Click here for the Book Launch video.
NOW AVAILABLE through major retailers. For more info, visit the publisher here.
Grassroots Pentecostalism in Brazil and the United States: Migrations, Missions, and Mobility. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022.
This book offers an historical and comparative profile of classical pentecostal movements in Brazil and the United States in view of their migratory beginnings and transnational expansion. Pentecostalism’s inception in the early twentieth century, particularly in its global South permutations, was defined by its grassroots character. While the rise to prominence of the Assemblies of God in Brazil, the Western hemisphere’s largest (non-Catholic) denomination, demanded structure akin to mainline contexts, classical pentecostals such as the Christian Congregation movement cling to their grassroots identity. Comparing the migratory and missional flow of movements with similar European and US roots, this book considers the prospects for Brazilian pentecostals with an eye on the problems of church growth and polity, gender, politics, and ethnic identity.
“Palma’s meticulous and erudite—but highly readable—work is a first-rate study of three ‘first wave,’ or ‘classical,’ Pentecostal denominations in Brazil: The Assemblies of God, introduced to South America by Swedish missionaries, and the Italian Christian Congregation and Christian Assembly. In this rich foundational historical work, Palma explores how these three churches evolved from imported missions to dynamic ‘grassroots’ denominations that have helped transform Brazil into what is today one of the most actively Pentecostal nations in the world.” (Virginia Garrard, Professor of History, The University of Texas at Austin, USA)
Click here for the Book Launch video.
NOW AVAILABLE through major retailers in paperback, hardcover, and e-book. For more endorsements, a preview, and purchase options, visit Palgrave Macmillan.
Embracing Our Roots: Rediscovering the Value of Faith, Family, and Tradition. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2021.
Drawing from my background as an Italian American evangelical, Embracing Our Roots considers the significance of rediscovering our ancestral history in a society where many are forced to repress, ignore, or reject their heritage. A nation of immigrants, every American is, in some sense, an “ethnic” American and stands to gain from considering how the people and places they come from make them unique.
“In Paul J. Palma’s latest work, faith, family, and tradition unite in a celebration of both past and present. Embracing Our Roots is a go-to guide for Christians who seek to strengthen their faith as it is connected to their family’s background. This book demonstrates that, like the quest for a hidden treasure, the discovery of one’s heritage can have a variety of twists and turns that bring a person home to themselves and, ultimately, to God.” (Stephanie Longo, Instructor of history, Lackawanna College)
Complete with practical guides for building your family tree and writing your ancestral history!
NOW AVAILABLE in paperback, hardback, and e-book! Visit Wipf and Stock for a preview and purchase options.
Click here for the Book Launch video.
Italian American Pentecostalism and the Struggle for Religious Identity. London: Routledge, 2020.
This book examines the roots, inception, and expansion of Pentecostalism among Italian Americans to demonstrate how Pentecostalism moves so freely through widely varying cultures. This work provides a purview into the religious lives of an underexamined but culturally significant group in America. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars of Pentecostalism, Religious Studies and Religious History, as well as Migrations Studies and Cultural Studies in America.
“This elegantly written book reveals the unexpected, remarkable and surprisingly unknown story of Italian American Pentecostalism. Paul Palma beautifully depicts the contours and the inner social and spiritual world of a movement peculiarly shaped by ethnicity, race, and class as well as internal theological controversies and dissensions. Born out of a bricolage of folk-Catholic, Reformed evangelical, and Holiness currents, Italian American Pentecostalism emerged in twentieth-century America as a highly mobile spiritually and socially liberating movement. Rich with interviews, testimonies, historically rare pictures, and a detailed analysis of Pentecostal religious aesthetics, this book is one of the most evocative studies of Italian American religious and social life. Theoretically and theologically literate and empirically robust, the book is a wonderful contribution to the study of global Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.” (Annalisa Butticci, Utrecht University – Max Plank Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Netherlands)
Click here for the Book Launch video.
NOW AVAILABLE through Amazon and other major retailers in paperback, hardcover, and e-book! Visit Routledge.com for more info.
SELECT ARTICLES AND INTERVIEWS
** For a complete list of publications, see my CV.
Paul J. Palma 