Book excerpt: This volume is the first in a series of volumes surveying the important names, movements, and institutions that have been significant in forging black renewal movements in various contexts worldwide. In this volume the entries cover the more than 150 identifiable Holiness, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Neo-Pentecostal, and quasi-Pentecostal bodies within the United States and Canada. In addition, the dictionary contains entries on the important people, places, events, and theological and secular issues that shaped these groups over their histories, some of which go back more than a century. This and subsequent volumes will be invaluable tools for students and scholars of the history of Pentecostalism.