Jay Beaman

Wipf and Stock Publishers

At a time when the Evangelical wing of the church is beginning to show some signs of soul searching over the issues of war and peace, the Pentecostals would do well to study their own heritage.

Whether they accept or reject their earlier world view, they need to interpret the motivation for their original beliefs and those which they now hold.

As people of the word of God, have Pentecostals altered their pacifistic views as a result of new biblical insights or cultural accommodation?

Endorsements

Most Pentecostals have no idea of their pacifist heritage.  In this volume, now revised and into its third decade, Jay Beaman produces a succinct synopsis of early Pentecostal responses to war.  He produces not only primary evidence and superb data analysis, but also captures the pulse of a movement.  Beaman implores the current generation to revisit a waning heritage by linking pacifism with their counter-cultural and prophetic worldview based upon unwavering allegiance to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
- Martin Mittelstadt, Evangel University

Jay Beaman was the first to stress the significance of pacifism in early American Pentecostalism and its eventual loss as Pentecostals started to seek social acceptance. This new edition offers new data on the extent of Pentecostal pacifism garnered through new online archival resources and military documents. Beaman conservatively estimates that at least a third of the Assemblies of God and perhaps as much as fifty-five percent of all Pentecostal denominations were pacific. For a religious movement that now aligns itself to political conservatives and the military establishment, Beaman's work is an eye opener to anyone interested in the social origins and beliefs of early Pentecostalism.
- Peter Althouse, Southeastern University

Thoroughly researched and documented, this book uncovers the troubling, subversive memory of early Pentecostals' struggle to serve the kingdom of God and its cause for peace.  Jay Beaman provides a space wherein those from the past speak to us in the present.  It is getting harder to deny the existence of Pentecostal pacifism.
- Cheryl Bridges-Johns, Church of God Theological Seminary