The purpose of this article is to analyze the social
and historical development of the Pentecostal
Methodist Church of Chile (imp) and
the Pentecostal Evangelical Church (iep); representatives
of the Chilean Pentecostal movement
(1909 – 1973). We consulted primary
sources corresponding to the magazines published
by the movement since 1909. From
an epistemic standpoint, the social legitimacy
theory of Max Weber helped to explain
the origin and development of Chilean Pentecostalism
and how this was a religious movement
of charismatic legitimacy that evolved
and became an institution in Chilean society.
Around 1932, once the movement had established
itself, the Pentecostal charisma entered
into a routinization phase, generating its
first schism. A faction of the movement became
independent to form the iep and introduce
a government system of traditional legitimacy.
However, the main core of the imp kept a
charismatic model. Despite this, both factions
had to face constant internal tensions between
charismatic and the traditional models, which
led to the formation of new autonomously organized
groups.