From the very beginning of the Pentecostal revival at Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1906, sanctification has been an important part of the theological milieu of the movement. Sanctification theology was also the focus of one of the earliest controversies in the movement, ultimately leading to a division over how it should be understood and experienced. This thesis begins with a bibliographic review analyzing monographs which include a focus on the topic of sanctification from 1914 to 2018 written by established voices from across the tradition. This analysis reveals that, to this point, few academics writing on the topic of sanctification have attended to a close reading of early Pentecostal periodicals which were primary sources of communication, teaching, and theological development in their day. This thesis is presented as an effort to fill that gap.

First, using the reception history method pioneered by Dr. Kimberly Alexander, this thesis explores twelve different periodicals from 1906 to 1920 – over 16,000 pages in total – across the Pentecostal spectrum in the United States. This collection of sermons, teachings, testimonies, and articles offers a well-informed reading of the sanctification theology of early Pentecostals.

Second, there are no theological structures imposed on these periodical readings. Rather than arranging them based on previously defined categories of ‘Finished Work’ or ‘Wesleyan-Holiness’, this thesis arranges them based on their chronological relationship to the early sanctification controversy in the movement. Thus, these voices are heard in fresh ways, allowing theological categories to arise naturally, and offering new insights into this era in Pentecostal history. These insights are used to construct models representative of early Pentecostal sanctification theology.

Finally, these early voices are brought together with contemporary voices in the tradition, as well as helpful voices from outside the tradition, in order to offer a ‘re-visioning’ of certain early Pentecostal theological loci. This, in turn, allows some proposals for a unifying theology of sanctification faithfully rooted in the early tradition to be brought forward as an overture toward future reflections on this topic.