Pentecostal Mysticism and African American Hymnody: A Study of Willie Mae Ford Smith

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the growing interest in Pentecostal mysticism, scholarship has devoted little attention to the prominence of music in the spirituality of the tradition. I examine a Pentecostal musician and one of her songs to demonstrate how mystical sensibilities are fostered in the Pentecostal community. Willie Mae Ford Smith’s musical style, at home in the Pentecostal church, allowed her to express mystical themes within her performances. The examined song, “If Jesus Had To Pray (What About Me),” is a meditation on Christ’s agony in the garden of Gethsemane, whereby listeners join their sufferings with his. The song illustrates the role of music in Pentecostal mysticism and expands the field in two further ways. Pentecostal spirituality’s Christocentric dynamic is highlighted against the backdrop of the field’s focus thus far on pneumatology. Additionally, the existence of an appreciation of suffering in Pentecostal mysticism is confirmed in contradistinction to prior claims.