diff --git a/README.rdoc b/README.rdoc
index 26e7f3225e..686d9a79ed 100644
--- a/README.rdoc
+++ b/README.rdoc
@@ -69,6 +69,28 @@ Active Resource supports the token based authentication provided by Rails throug
 You can also set any specific HTTP header using the same way.  As mentioned above, headers are thread-safe, so you can set headers dynamically, even in a multi-threaded environment:
 
     ActiveResource::Base.headers['Authorization'] = current_session_api_token
+    
+Global Authentication to be used across all subclasses of ActiveResource::Base should be handled using the ActiveResource::Connection class.
+
+    ActiveResource::Base.connection.auth_type = :bearer
+    ActiveResource::Base.connection.bearer_token = @bearer_token
+    
+    class Person < ActiveResource::Base
+      self.connection.auth_type = :bearer
+      self.connection.bearer_token = @bearer_token
+    end
+
+ActiveResource supports 2 options for HTTP authentication today.
+
+1. Basic
+
+    ActiveResource::Connection.new("http://my%40email.com:%31%32%33@localhost")
+    # username: my@email.com password: 123
+
+2. Bearer Token
+
+    ActiveResource::Base.connection.auth_type = :bearer
+    ActiveResource::Base.connection.bearer_token = @bearer_token
 
 ==== Protocol
 
diff --git a/lib/active_resource/connection.rb b/lib/active_resource/connection.rb
index a10d530b0f..82cc8cc311 100644
--- a/lib/active_resource/connection.rb
+++ b/lib/active_resource/connection.rb
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ class Connection
       :head => 'Accept'
     }
 
-    attr_reader :site, :user, :password, :auth_type, :timeout, :open_timeout, :read_timeout, :proxy, :ssl_options
+    attr_reader :site, :user, :password, :bearer_token, :auth_type, :timeout, :open_timeout, :read_timeout, :proxy, :ssl_options
     attr_accessor :format, :logger
 
     class << self
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ def requests
     # attribute to the URI for the remote resource service.
     def initialize(site, format = ActiveResource::Formats::JsonFormat, logger: nil)
       raise ArgumentError, 'Missing site URI' unless site
-      @proxy = @user = @password = nil
+      @proxy = @user = @password = @bearer_token = nil
       self.site = site
       self.format = format
       self.logger = logger
@@ -62,6 +62,11 @@ def password=(password)
       @password = password
     end
 
+    # Sets the bearer token for remote service.
+    def bearer_token=(bearer_token)
+      @bearer_token = bearer_token
+    end
+
     # Sets the auth type for remote service.
     def auth_type=(auth_type)
       @auth_type = legitimize_auth_type(auth_type)
@@ -240,6 +245,8 @@ def authorization_header(http_method, uri)
           else
             { 'Authorization' => 'Basic ' + ["#{@user}:#{@password}"].pack('m').delete("\r\n") }
           end
+        elsif @bearer_token
+          { 'Authorization' => "Bearer #{@bearer_token}" }
         else
           {}
         end
@@ -294,7 +301,7 @@ def http_format_header(http_method)
       def legitimize_auth_type(auth_type)
         return :basic if auth_type.nil?
         auth_type = auth_type.to_sym
-        auth_type.in?([:basic, :digest]) ? auth_type : :basic
+        auth_type.in?([:basic, :digest, :bearer]) ? auth_type : :basic
       end
   end
 end
diff --git a/test/cases/authorization_test.rb b/test/cases/authorization_test.rb
index 62a7c2c5cb..829ba1c87b 100644
--- a/test/cases/authorization_test.rb
+++ b/test/cases/authorization_test.rb
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@ def setup
     @david = { :person => { :id => 2, :name => 'David' } }.to_json
     @authenticated_conn = ActiveResource::Connection.new("http://david:test123@localhost")
     @basic_authorization_request_header = { 'Authorization' => 'Basic ZGF2aWQ6dGVzdDEyMw==' }
+    @jwt = 'eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxMjM0NTY3ODkwIiwibmFtZSI6IkpvaG4gRG9lIiwiaWF0IjoxNTE2MjM5MDIyfQ.SflKxwRJSMeKKF2QT4fwpMeJf36POk6yJV_adQssw5c'
+    @bearer_token_authorization_request_header = { 'Authorization' => "Bearer #{@jwt}" }
   end
 
   private
@@ -25,6 +27,7 @@ def setup
     ActiveResource::HttpMock.respond_to do |mock|
       mock.get    "/people/2.json",           @basic_authorization_request_header, @david
       mock.get    "/people/1.json",           @basic_authorization_request_header, nil, 401, { 'WWW-Authenticate' => 'i_should_be_ignored' }
+      mock.get    "/people/3.json",           @bearer_token_authorization_request_header, @david
       mock.put    "/people/2.json",           @basic_authorization_request_header, nil, 204
       mock.delete "/people/2.json",           @basic_authorization_request_header, nil, 200
       mock.post   "/people/2/addresses.json", @basic_authorization_request_header, nil, 201, 'Location' => '/people/1/addresses/5'
@@ -148,6 +151,25 @@ def test_authorization_header_if_credentials_supplied_and_auth_type_is_basic
     assert_equal ["david", "test123"], ::Base64.decode64(authorization[1]).split(":")[0..1]
   end
 
+  def test_authorization_header_explicitly_setting_jwt_and_auth_type_is_bearer
+    @conn = ActiveResource::Connection.new("http://localhost")
+    @conn.auth_type = :bearer
+    @conn.bearer_token = @jwt
+    authorization_header = @conn.__send__(:authorization_header, :get, URI.parse('/people/3.json'))
+    assert_equal @bearer_token_authorization_request_header['Authorization'], authorization_header['Authorization']
+    authorization = authorization_header["Authorization"].to_s.split
+
+    assert_equal "Bearer", authorization[0]
+    assert_equal @jwt, authorization[1]
+  end
+
+  def test_authorization_header_if_no_jwt_and_auth_type_is_bearer
+    @conn = ActiveResource::Connection.new("http://localhost")
+    @conn.auth_type = :bearer
+    authorization_header = @conn.__send__(:authorization_header, :get, URI.parse('/people/3.json'))
+    assert_nil authorization_header['Authorization']
+  end
+
   def test_client_nonce_is_not_nil
     assert_not_nil ActiveResource::Connection.new("http://david:test123@localhost").send(:client_nonce)
   end