Pentecostal Christians believe that the Holy Spirit is here and now. An estimated 35,000 people join the Pentecostal church each day. Of the world's two billion Christians a quarter are now Pentecostal—up from 6 percent in 1980.
The Atlas of Pentecostalism is a unique and dynamic online database, mapping an expanding global religion as it evolves.
The project uses global crowd-sourcing and big data to provide an independent perspective on Pentecostalism and offers various narrative pathways through the materials.
The database can also be ordered as an e-book or printed book, which freezes the dynamic data at the moment of ordering.
The project brings together four different ways of describing (or "mapping") Pentecostalism worldwide:
1) ICONOGRAPHY: photos of visual manifestations of Pentecostalism all over the world, from logos and signs to churches, bibles and uniforms. The photos are uploaded and tagged by contributors.
2) CARTOGRAPHY: graphic real-time maps based on dynamic "big data."
3) VIDEOGRAPHY: a 50-minute documentary (presented as 25 short web videos) on the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Lagos, Nigeria, the "new Mecca of Christianity."
4) INTERVIEWS: leading scholars on Pentecostalism offer audio guided walks through the database.
The Atlas of Pentecostalism is an experimental journalism and design project that aims to develop a reusable model for reporting on dynamic global trends and crises, incorporating networks, crowdsourcing, big data and visual information to generate a multi-layered informational environment. The project is being released with a Creative Commons license.
Explore the Atlas of Pentecostalism at: http://www.atlasofpentecostalism.net/
![Media file: img_6606.jpg](/sites/default/files/12-06-13/img_6606.jpg ""Bible is the bread of life and it never becomes stale," notes the sign placed alongside a much smaller notice for Nigeria's Lagbus bus service. Image by Richard Vijgen. Nigeria, 2013.")
