Jacob Palma

Credentials: BA, Christian Life College / MDiv, Urshan Graduate School of Theology / PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary (present)

Denomination: United Pentecostal Church International

Specific Field: Missiology

Biography: 

Born and raised in Merced, California, Jacob Palma is the grandchild of Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants. During his undergraduate studies, he traveled to Mexico regularly and became interested in how Pentecostalism contextualizes in Latin America. He continued his travels throughout Central America before settling in Uruguay in 2011. As a researcher, Palma aims to hear how Pentecostalism has grown in Latin America from the perspectives of marginalized actors often overlooked in classical Pentecostal mission history. To accomplish this, he is investigating the Mexican Apostolic mission initiative and its local reception in Uruguay in the 1950s. Palma hopes to decenter and reframe dominant narratives of Oneness Pentecostal origins by employing a World Christianity approach to Pentecostal historiography.