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Cecil M. Robeck Jr.

Senior Professor of Church History and Ecumenics

As senior faculty at Fuller, this professor primarily mentors students and only occasionally, if ever, teaches courses.

AA, San Jose City College
BS, Bethany Bible College
MDiv, PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary
Honorary DD, Bethany University

Courses Taught

CH500: Early Church History
CH502: Medieval and Reformation History
CH504: Modern Church History
CH536/836: Christian Unity and Bilateral Dialogues
CH547/847: History and Development of Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements
CH584/884A: Post-Vatican II Catholic Church

Campus Affiliations

Center for Advanced Theological Studies

Areas of Expertise

Global Pentecostalism (history, theology, and spirituality), charismatic renewal, ecumenism

“In a world that valued and divided people according to color, [the first Pentecostals] tried to show us that we can attain racial harmony, intimacy, and inclusiveness when we remember that we are all one in the Spirit of God.”

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Dr. Robeck, in his book The Azusa Street Mission and Revival.

Bio

Cecil M. Robeck, who has ministered at Fuller Seminary since 1974, is professor of church history and ecumenics and special assistant to the president for ecumenical relations. His long-term historical research centers on the Azusa Street Mission and Revival and its African American pastor William Seymour. In 1999, he received a grant from the John Randolf Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation to explore this topic and its impact on Los Angeles. His recent publications in the field of ecumenics have focused on the Holy Spirit, the Church, unity in the Pentecostal perspective, and potential contributions the Pentecostal Movement can make to the world Christian Movement.

Previously, Dr. Robeck served as an instructor in religion at Southern California College (now Vanguard University) in Costa Mesa, California, and as a trustee for Bethany Bible College in Scotts Valley, California. At Fuller, he has served in several administrative positions, including associate dean for Academic Programs in the School of Theology, director of Academic Services, director of Student Services, and director of Admissions and Records. 

An ordained minister with the Assemblies of God, Robeck has also worked on ecumenical issues for nearly 40 years with the World Council of Churches, the Vatican, the World Alliance [now Communion] of Reformed Churches, and other groups. He served as a Consultant to the Chairman of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization for long-term relations with the Vatican and on its initiative with the Orthodox churches. For the past 24 years Robeck has served on the steering committee of the Global Christian Forum. He also participated with Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI in worship events in Rome and Assisi. For 18 years he has met annually with the Secretaries of Christian World Communions and he appears regularly as a panelist on broadcasts of the American Religious Town Hall. 

Robeck has written 300 articles. He has also authored The Azusa Street Mission and Revival: The Birth of the Global Pentecostal Movement (2006, Recipient of the Pneuma Award, and nominated for the Grawmeyer Award) and Prophecy at Carthage: Perpetua, Tertullian, and Cyprian (1992). He is the editor of Witness to Pentecost: The Life of Frank Bartleman (1985) and Charismatic Experiences in History (1985), and coeditor of The Azusa Street Revival and Its Legacy (2006) and The Suffering Body: Responding to the Persecution of Christians (2006). He coedited the Cambridge Companion to Pentecostalism (2014) with Amos Yong. For nine years, he was editor of Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies. He is also part of the Azusa Street Memorial Committee and has lectured locally on the early Pentecostal sites in Los Angeles at UCLA, USC, Vanguard University, and the Japanese American National Museum.

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