Starting w/ Pentecostalism

[Striver]

I am interested in learning more about the Pentecostal perspective. Which author(s) would you suggest starting out with?

 

[ByTheSpirit]

Roberts Liardon is a Pentecostal historian, God's Generals is a good book to read concerning the major players of the early years.

Derek Prince is a good Pentecostal author.

A.W. Tozer is another

 

[Scottmcc1]

Andrew Wommack
John G Lake
Smith Wigglesworth
Kenneth Hagin

 

[dayhiker]

I'll and Jack Hayford.

 

[Granny2Shoes]

I am interested in learning more about the Pentecostal perspective. Which author(s) would you suggest starting out with?

I would recommend The God I Never Knew by Robert Morris. Robert gives a background of the Holy Spirit. It isn't exactly a book of Pentecostal perspective, but there are many different divisions of Pentecostal beliefs. I think the only thing that links them together is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and many of these churches can't really agree on what it is.

 

[Biblicist]

If you want to gain the 'best and latest' thought then you could check out the commentaries and journal articles by scholars who are either Pentecostal, charismatic or those who are deemed to be 'open-but-cautious" such as Carson, Fee, Grudem, Keener, Macchia (on the Holy Spirit), Thiselton and Witherington.

As the Pentecostal and charismatic movements supposedly comprise of around 500 million members across every continent and probably every nation, then you are in for a long ride.

You should probably focus on the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and its relationship to tongues where the divide is in two major camps, being those who are classic-Pentecostals (aka, AoG) and non classic-Pentecostals which probably comprises the vast majority of our contemporary Pentecostal scholars.

 

[PRMan99]

daveroberson.org/Media/7/WOSWOP%20Portrait%2010.pdf

This is the best book I have ever read about the Holy Spirit transforming someone's ministry. And it's free online.

 

[Dave-W]

Derek Prince. He was a great bible teacher and I had the honor of speaking with him several times one on one. Suggest: Foundation Series.

Don Basham. I met him a couple of times and was in a band with his son Glenn and Son-in-law Dick Leggat. Suggest: Face Up with a Miracle.

 

[AGTG]

Andrew Murray
EM Bounds
Graham Cooke
C. Peter Wagner (and his wife's stuff)

Most of all, trust the Holy Spirit to help you discern whether or not a teaching is from Him. There are lot of charismatic teachers out there, some of them are relatively unknown, that are excellent. If you're not sure, ask the Holy Spirit to help you know if you can trust the teachings/teacher.

 

[ltwin]

I am interested in learning more about the Pentecostal perspective. Which author(s) would you suggest starting out with?

For Pentecostal theology, I would suggest these works:

Foundations of Pentecostal Theology by Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave (both pastors in the Church of the Foursquare Gospel). This would be good as an overview of the theology of Foursquare and Assemblies of God type groups.

For an overview of classical Pentecostal Pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit), I would suggest Anthony Palma's The Holy Spirit: A Pentecostal Perspective. Palma is affiliated with the Assemblies of God.

The first two books are more theological in tone. If you are looking for material that is more pastoral or devotional in nature, I would recommend anything by Jack Hayford. Specifically, take a look at his book Living the Spirit Formed Life: Growing in the 10 Principles of Spirit-Filled Discipleship.

The above authors all come from the non-Wesleyan school of Pentecostalism. However, there is a lot of great work by Wesleyan Pentecostals as well. A classic written by Stephen Land of the Church of God (Cleveland, TN) is Pentecostal Spirituality: A Passion for the Kingdom.

If you are looking for a pretty solid but brief academic overview of Pentecostalism, I'd recommend Pentecostalism: A Very Short Introduction by William K. Kay and published by Oxford University. Kay is Professor of Theology at Glyndwr University and founding Director of the Centre for Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies.