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.
