Since I began my studies in Pentecostal history, have come to love early Pentecostal literature. All of the students in the Bangor PhD program engage the early papers from across the spectrum of the Pentecostal movement in their dissertations. This process of “reception history,” or the examining the first hand testimonies and teachings of early Pentecostals, has given me a great love of these papers. Almost every major Pentecostal group and leader had their own multi-page weekly or monthly paper filled with teachings, missionary reports, and testimonies of people being saved, sanctified, healed and baptized in the Holy Spirit. Through reading these papers, one can immerse themselves in the world of early Pentecostalism in a way that is not possible in any other medium.
The practice of publishing Pentecostal periodicals was not limited to early Pentecostals; it has continued to be an important part of our moment, continuing into the healing revivals of the 1950’s and into the Charismatic Renewal of the 1960s–1970s. In my role as director of the Holy Spirit Research Center at Oral Roberts University, I serve as a steward of many of these treasures in our own collection. It is one of my favorite parts of my job. I love to thumb through the pages and read what God was doing is all corners of the earth through all of these different groups. The HSRC has one of the most diverse holdings of Pentecostal and Charismatic literature in the world. It truly is a special place.
As I have worked to familiarize myself with the various papers and the groups who published them, I have wondered if anyone had ever made a comprehensive list of early pentecostal papers. So far, I haven’t found one. However, I was delighted to find a list of early Pentecostal papers in one of the early papers called The Pentecost, a paper published by A.S. Copley and J.R. Flower from Indianapolis, Indiana.
In several of the 1908 editions of The Pentecost, Copley listed all of the early papers associated with the Apostolic Faith Movement. There are, of course, many more papers in this era. But I have yet to find in these early papers a comprehensive list like this one. Some of these titles are lost to history. Some are available to researchers through the Consortium of Pentecostal Archives: https://pentecostalarchives.org/collections/ I am hoping this list can become a seed of a comprehensive list to come.
The following is a list of papers from the The Pentecost 1.2 (December, 1908), 12. I also attached the image and the PDF of the page containing the list. (Information in parentheses was added by me)
- The Pentecost – Indianapolis, IN, A.S. Copley; J.R. Flower
- The Pentecostal Witness – Zion City, IL, Thomas G. Atteberry
- The Latter Rain Evangel – Chicago, IL, William H. Piper
- The New Acts – Alliance, OH, (Levi Upton)
- Household of God – Dayton, OH
- The Bridegroom’s Messenger – Atlanta, GA, (G.B. Cashwell)
- The Apostolic Witness – Dallas, OR
- Trust – Elim Home, Rochester, NY
- The Apostolic Faith – Houston, TX, (W.F. Carothers)
- The Apostolic Faith – Portland, OR, Florence Crawford (formerly of Azusa Street Mission, Los Angeles, CA, William Seymour)
- The Pentecostal Record and Outlook – Spokane, WA, H.R. Bursell
- The Apostolic Standard – Beulah Home, Doxey, OK
- The Christian Assembly – Cincinnati, OH
- The Pentecostal Trumpet – Denver, CO
- The Midnight Cry – Seattle, WA
- The Latter Rain – Watertown, NY, J.E. Sanders
- The Spirit of Truth – Emsworth, Hants, England, W.L. Lake
- Confidence – Sunderland, England, A.A. Body
- The Cloud of Witnesses – Bombay, India, Max Wood Moorehead
- Pentecostal Truths – (Chinese) Hong Kong, China, Mok Lai Chi
- The Apostolic Light – (Japanese) Tokyo, Japan, M. L. Ryan
- God’s Latter Rain – Johannesburg, South Africa, (John G. Lake)
- Spade Regen – Amsterdam, Holland, G.R. Polman
I hope this list is helpful to those interested in the literature of this era. I also hope together we can better document the papers of the early Pentecostal movement.
Daniel D. Isgrigg 