The evolution of ideas about pacifism in the global Pentecostal tradition

Abstract

The article presents opinions in global Pentecostalism about pacifism and nonviolence. In most European countries and the United States, the topic of pacifism became relevant during the World Wars. Over time, pacifism as a dominant was replaced by the possibility of independent choice of believers in accordance with their convictions of conscience. The Global Pentecostal movement has developed different strategies of action in relation to participation in military operations: from categorical refusal to total acceptance of the need for military service. Those strategies were influenced by changes in the views of religious leaders, and the power position on statements from individual churches. In the Soviet Union, Pentecostals already in the 1920s held loyalist views on the military issue. The Soviet state forced Pentecostals to declare the need to fulfill civic obligations, including with arms in hand. Soviet Pentecostals officially proclaimed the principle of personal responsibility for one’s choices and the need to comply with state laws. In the late Soviet period, for most believers, military service was a way to test the "perseverance of faith" and at the same time demonstrate law-abidingness and inclusion in the life of Soviet society.