Charismatic Movement 
An expression used to refer to a movement within historic churches that began in the 1950s. In the earlier stages the movement was often termed "neo-Pentecostal"; in more recent years it has frequently been referred to as the "charismatic renewal" or the "charismatic renewal movement." Therefore, participants are usually described as "charismatics."
On the
American scene it is possible to date significant charismatic beginnings to the
year 1960 with the national publicity given to certain events connected with
the ministry of Dennis Bennett, at that time Episcopal rector in Van Nuys,
California. Since then there has been a continuing growth of the movement
within many of the mainline denomination: first, such Protestant denominations
as Episcopal, Lutheran, and Presbyterian (early 1960s); second, the Roman
Catholic (beginning in 1967); and third, the Greek Orthodox (about 1971). The
charismatic movement has affected almost every historic denomination and has
spread to many other denomination and countries beyond the United States. This
continuing growth has resulted in a multiplicity of national, regional, and
local conferences, the production of a wide range of literature, and increasing
attention to doctrinal and theological questions both within and outside the
movement. The challenge to the denominations may be seen in the fact that since
1960 well over one hundred official denominational documents, regional,
national, continental, and international, on the charismatic movement have been
produced.
The
immediate background of the charismatic movement is "Classical
Pentecostalism" dating from the early twentieth century, with its emphasis
on baptism with (or in) the Holy Spirit as an endowment of power subsequent to
conversion, speaking in tongues as the initial evidence of this baptism, and
the continuing validity of the spiritual gifts (charismata) of 1 Cor. 12:8-10.
Because of such distinctive emphases these early "Pentecostals", as
they came to be called, found no place in the mainline churches (they either
freely left or were forced out) and thus founded their own. As a result there
gradually came into being such "classical" Pentecostal
denominations as the Assemblies of God, the Pentecostal Holiness Church, the
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), the Church of God in Christ, and the
International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. The charismatic movement, while
related historically and doctrinally to classical Pentecostalism, has largely
stayed within the historic church bodies or has spilled over into
interdenominational church fellowships. In neither case has there been any
significant movement toward the classical Pentecostal churches. Hence today the
charismatic movement, despite its "classical" parentage, exists
almost totally outside official Pentecostal denominations.