Spirit Baptism and Koinonia

This book explores the historic Azusa Street Revival, as a theological manifestation of koinonia, communal life shaped by the Holy Spirit. Moving beyond a narrow focus on glossolalia, it reads the 1906–1908 Revival as an enacted theology of community that consciously understood itself as a continuation of the narrative of the Book of Acts.Against the backdrop of a racially segregated American society, the interracial fellowship at Azusa Street is examined as a Spirit-empowered expression of unity, reconciliation, and shared mission. By placing Acts and Azusa Street in sustained conversation, Lee Burns argues that the Spirit not only gifts individuals but forms a people marked by mutuality, equality, and common witness.Combining biblical theology, historical analysis, and constructive ecclesiology, the study critiques both idealised and narrowly sociological accounts of the church. It proposes instead a Spirit-centred ecclesiology that acknowledges conflict, diversity, and growth as integral to communal life. Koinonia emerges as the defining mark of Spirit baptism and as a lived, corporate witness to God’s mission in the world.