To employ the hermeneutic of the fantastic in interpreting the 1917
photograph of early Pentecostal interracialism points Pentecostal Studies
to a congruent theological focus on a carnivalesque ecclesiology and a his-
toriographical trajectory of Pentecostalism as a liminal movement. A her-
meneutic of the marvelous will shift to another trope and, consequently,
suggest alternative theological focus and historiographic trajectory.
A P ENTECOSTAL PHOTOGRAPH AND THE HERMENEUTIC
OF THE MARVELOUS
Instead of the uncanny or the fantastic, the photograph might register as
marvelous. In a hermeneutic of the marvelous, an artifact, event, or text is
subversive within the racial order because known racial laws are suspended;
the marvelous is anarchic. The photograph of a marvelous space is rebel-
lious, treasonous, insurgent, or riotous; the racial norms and reasoning are
suspended; the racial order is ruptured. The photograph snaps a shot of
a rebellion against the racial codes and laws that sustain white supremacy.
The rebellious racial event within the photograph and the photograph
itself disrupt and subvert the racial regime of white-rule. Is the interra-
cial behavior of white Pentecostals an expression of white treason? Could
interracial relations among Pentecostals be a type of Pentecostal anarchy
disrupting the racial order of white privilege? How is this rupture and
subversion historically possible? Is the suspension of racial reasoning and
order a supernatural act? 19
Interracial Pentecostalism as a subversive or riotous space illustrates
a form of Pentecostalism challenging the racial norms and racial expec-
tation of regulated religion. It interrupts and disrupts the racial order.
Interracial Pentecostal behavior might be met with arrest by police or
torture by white vigilantes. In describing interracial Pentecostalism as a
subversive space, the focus is on the racial ruptures produced during early
Pentecostalism. As a photograph of the marvelous, this picture can be
accused of supporting racial anarchy and inciting a race war.
How might one construe where a 1917 interracial Pentecostal
photograph of the marvelous fi ts within the narrative arc of early
Pentecostalism? The narrative of Pentecostalism birthed by the Azusa
Street Revival could be construed as religious and racial anarchy. The
Azusa Street Revival disrupted white or black religious ways of wor-
shipping, relating, and organizing. Anarchy might be illustrated in a
VINTAGE PHOTO, VISUAL EXEGESIS, AND 1917 INTERRACIAL... 221