The story of John Wesley's affair with Grace Murray and how Charles Wesley prevented their marriage by persuading Grace to marry John Bennet, who was one of the key Methodist lay preachers, has long fascinated historians, but most have tended to view John as the victim and been hugely critical of the behaviour and actions of the others involved. Grace has been described as 'impetuous, imperious, and probably a little unstable' and as an 'uneducated, vain, fickle, selfish and presuming' flirt, even though this does not tie in with either John Wesley's or John Bennet's view of her. Bennet has been dismissed as 'a cheat' and 'a treacherous, unfriendly man', even though Charles Wesley, George Whitefield and other contemporaries consistently praised his character. Charles has been accused of over-reacting to gossip and acting out of personal reasons. It has been alleged, for example, that he wanted John to remain single so he could retain the income his own wife required, and that both he and his wife were too snobbish to want to have Grace as their sister-in-law. All these accusations have tended to obscure rather than clarify what really happened because they either ignore or do not pay enough attention to the fact that John Wesley was just as much to blame for what happened.Today, after decades of relative historical neglect, Grace Murray is beginning to receive more recognition as 'a strong-willed, capable and dedicated woman worthy of a distinguished place in the annals of early Methodism'. What emerges from this study is a remarkable woman - a pioneer female class leader and preacher, who, throughout her life, had to come to terms not only with the doubts and fears that can beset Christians at times, but also with the prejudices of her day. Dr Johnson represented those well when he quipped: 'A woman preaching is like a dog walking on its hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.' What comes across most strongly in Grace's writings is her acute awareness of her own failings and her abiding faith in the redemptive love of God. When she knew she was approaching death she wrote to her son:'God did wonders for me all my life. I have been astonished and overwhelmed with a sense of his love to me the chief of sinners, the most unfaithful and unprofitable of all his servants.'Her character makes it all the more understandable why John Wesley was hit so hard by her loss and why he struggled to understand why God had not permitted him to marry her:The main outcome of Grace's marriage to John Bennet has usually been portrayed as being John Wesley's disastrous marriage on the rebound to Molly Vazeille, but of far more significance was the divide her loss created between John and Charles. That had huge and important repercussions on the way in which Methodism was subsequently to develop.After the initial trauma was over both John Wesley and Grace Murray came to believe that it was God who had prevented their marriage. In a more secular age, it seems preferable to explain what happened by looking at the actions of people involved and using the evidence available. This book tries to do exactly that and what emerges is a tragedy of errors for which all the protagonists can be held equally responsible. John Wesley, Grace Murray, John Bennet, and Charles Wesley all did what they did for the best, if at times misguided, motives. Whether the hand of God can also be seen in what happened is left to the reader's judgement.

In the opening years of the nineteenth century, south of Natchez, hidden away in a remote backwater named Deadman's Bend, a woman in her 20s found herself a widow, the mother of two small children. With fierce determination, she supported her family. On the waters of the great river and in the shade of the deep woods, her precocious son Hiram grew like a wild plant, with no schools and no churches. Soon enough, he learned how to catch a riverboat into Natchez. There he encountered ball room ladies, swindlers, gamblers, merchants, constables, and judges. When he was 17 years old, the boy Hiram learned carpentry from an Uncle. The Uncle's wife taught him polite conversation. He met a lovely young girl and moved to Wilkinson County to marry her. When his wife joined a Methodist Society, Hiram went along to please her. Soon he became convinced that his purpose in life was to preach the gospel. Contrary to the old adage, Hiram Enlow found acceptance among his own people. The unlettered and un-churched at Deadman's Bend and his neighbors in Wilkinson County revered him. The Methodists, however, had a tradition of academic preparation and a Book of Discipline. Hiram Enlow struggled for more than a decade to gain acceptance into the Methodist clerical hierarchy. He was loved and admired by those whom he served, but his academic deficiencies and his preaching style needed correction. He overcame his weaknesses and eventually received his church's recognition. The book is written as an historical novel. Each chapter is appended with meditation/discussion questions in the style of contemporary Christian spiritual literature. Additional features include the author's notes regarding the research and family history. The autobiography, poetry and essays of Hiram Enlow, long held as a private family heirloom, are included as an appendix.

This second volume of a two volume edition contains letters written between 1757 and 1788, along with some undated letters, by the famous hymn writer, poet, and co-founder of Methodism, Charles Wesley (1707-1788). The edition brings together texts which are located in libraries and archives from across the globe and here presents them in transcribed form for the first time - many of the letters have never been previously published. The appended notes help the reader locate the letters in their proper historical and literary context and provide full information regarding the location of the original source and, where possible, something of its provenance. These texts provide an intimate glimpse into the world of early Methodism and Charles's own struggles and triumphs as a central figure within it. They collectively document the story of Charles Wesley's experiences later in his life as a leader of the Methodist movement and, of key importance for Charles, Methodism's place in the wider purposes of God. Here are letters of a theological kind, letters that reflect on his experiences as an itinerant preacher, letters that show something of his rather unsettled personality and letters that relate to his own personal and domestic, circumstances. Here we see something of the inner workings of a nascent religious group. These are not sanitised accounts written by those looking back, but first-hand accounts written from the heart of a lived experience. While this book will naturally appeal to those who have a specialist interest in the early history of Methodism, for others there is much to be gained from the picture it gives of the wider eighteenth-century world in which Charles and his co-religionists worked and lived.

This book is a biography of Bishop J. Waskom Pickett and contains thorough documentation and extensive photographs. Bishop Pickett embodied the last generation of the missionaries of the great nineteenth and twentieth century missionary movement from the West. This monumental biography highlights his conversion movement studies, his service to the poor and sick, relief work, interventions with presidents, senators, and ambassadors in behalf of India, and friendships with Nehru, Ambedkar, and other leaders of the new nation-in multifarious ways. Pickett was, by any measure, among the noteworthy missionaries of his century or any other. The Church Growth Movement in India had its beginning with the missionary activity of Bishop Pickett.

What did John Wesley think about alcohol, music, and popularity? What are his thoughts on education, free will, and joy?

From "absolution" to "zeal," Quotable Wesley is a treasury of quotations taken from Wesley's letters, sermons, tracts, and journal entries on a variety of wide-ranging topics. Here is an essential resource for teachers, Christian leaders, pastors, and laypeople fascinated by the insights of this remarkable founder of the Methodist movement.

Useful for sermon preparation, teaching, and individual reflection, this book is designed to supplement the library of anyone interested in Wesley and his work.

Popular author F. Belton Joyner has revised his best-selling resource for introducing the United Methodist Church. In a humorous yet respectful style, Joyner takes the reader through illuminating questions and answers on United Methodist terms and beliefs on God, Jesus, the Bible, the church, salvation, and more. Examples of Joyner's questions include aEUROoeWhy did Jesus have to die?aEURO aEUROoeWho was John Wesley, and who were all those other figures?aEURO aEUROoeIs the Bible infallible?aEURO aEUROoeWhat is The Book of Discipline?aEURO This revised edition includes new sections on United Methodism as a global church, United Methodist ministries beyond the congregation, and United Methodist theology in conversation with other Christian traditions. It has also been updated to reflect recent changes to The Book of Discipline and the orders of ministry. The book's question-and-answer format easily lends itself to use in Sunday school classes and also works for individual study. From new recruits to lifelong United Methodists, readers will gain a lively sense of what is special and important about their denominational home.

The Wesley brothers - John (1703-1791) and Charles (1707-1788) - are famous as the cofounders of the Wesleyan tradition and the Methodist family of churches. Their impact and legacy have been huge: what began as the excited outpouring of their conversion experiences grew into a transatlantic revival and became a vibrant and significant theological tradition. But what exactly did they believe and teach? In this book John Tyson, an acknowledged authority on Methodist studies, offers a helpful introduction to the main teachings and practices of both John and Charles Wesley. The first book to show how Charles, the younger and lesser-known brother, contributed in particular to Wesleyan theology, The Way of the Wesleys takes readers through main theological points thematically. Tyson also includes suggestions for further reading and questions for reflection at the end of each chapter. Lavishly documented from the Wesleys' own writings, this engaging, accessible book shows why the Wesleys remain relevant to the faith journey of Christians today.

This book documents a carefully planned missionary exposition marketed by church leaders as the "Centenary Celebration of American Methodist Missions." The three-week event attracted over one million visitors, each paying fifty cents to enter the Columbus fairgrounds complex to investigate ways in which American Methodists were positioning themselves to convert the world to Christ. The Centenary celebration pointed Methodists toward the future by challenging fair goers to imagine what Methodist missions at home and throughout the world might look like in the months and years following the completion of the exposition. This book is a product of the 1919 Methodist missionary fair. The speeches and addresses found within this edited collection function as textual sound bites to help readers better understand the ideas, language, and motives of early twentieth century American Methodists.

These essays about British Methodists in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, explore the process of collective remembering. Three distinct aspects are probed in this volume: how telling life stories shaped identity for the Methodist movement; how remembering lives was both contrived and contested; how historians' techniques have exposed the process of memorialising and remembering in Methodism.

The proliferation of work on the theological hermeneutics of Scripture in recent years has challenged and reimagined the divisions between systematic theology and biblical studies on the one hand and academy and church on the other. Also notable, however, has been the absence of a full-length treatment of theological interpretation from a Wesleyan perspective. This monograph develops a Wesleyan theological hermeneutic of Scripture, approached as a craft learned from a tradition-constituted appropriation of John Wesley's hermeneutics. This hermeneutic requires a descriptive analysis of the context, grammar, and ruled reading of the literal sense in Wesley's interpretive practices, as well as critical interaction with the analysis in light of contemporary issues. As a result of this interaction, continuity and discontinuity between Wesley's and Wesleyan interpretation emerges and is accounted for. The Wesleyan theological hermeneutic developed here defines the church as Spirit-formed context within the larger divine economy of salvation, in contrast with Wesley's emphasis on individual soteriology and underdeveloped ecclesiology. Within this community context, Wesleyan theological interpretation is a means of grace whereby the Holy Spirit reinterprets the identity of readers into children of God. Theological interpretation invites readers on a Wesleyan account to participate in the textually mediated identity of Jesus Christ through the gracious work of the Holy Spirit. Wesleyan identity is therefore a figurally created identity based on the literal sense of Scripture. Wesley's analogy of faith, which rules his reading of Scripture, thus gives way to a more explicitly trinitarian rule of faith.