These twelve sermons by renowned author and pastor William Willimon, with responses by theologian Stanley Hauerwas, demonstrate the fruitfulness and difficulty of the interaction between theologians and practicing pastors. In this book, the authors suggest an intriguing way to think about theological work within the church. In this intriguing book, the authors suggest a new way to think about theological work within the church.

All truly religious movements are informed by a search for spiritual renewal, often signalled by an attempt to return to what are seen as the original, undiluted values of earlier times. Elements of this process are to be seen in the history of almost all modern religious revivals, both inside and outside the mainstream denominations.

The Central Jurisdiction was created for African American members of the merger in 1939 of: The Methodist Episcopal Church, The Methodist Episcopal Church South, and The Methodist Protestant Church.

This is the fourth volume of Wesley's Journal to appear in the critical edition of The Works of John Wesley. Covering the decade from early 1755 to the middle of 1765, it contains four "Extracts" from Wesley's Journal (10-13) that document--in Wesley's own words--a significant period of consolidation in the Wesleyan revival. He describes in vivid detail the growth of the Methodist movement, especially in the central portions of northern England as well as the spread into Ireland and Scotland.

This period contains several interesting controversies that help define the shape of Methodism and the nature of its relationship to the Church of England. Differences of opinion over the questions of lay preaching, ordination, sacraments, and doctrinal standards arise within the Methodist societies and represent the issues at the heart of a maturing organization that is stretching the limits of its self-conscious role within the Established Church. The doctrine of Christian perfection also provides the focus of another challenge to unity within the people called Methodists and increases the strain upon their relationship with the Church. The nature and manner of John Wesley's authority and leadership within the movement continues to be a controversial issue as the annual conferences become an important feature within the movement.

Features footnotes to quotations, key themes, and background information.

Offering a revisionist reading of American Methodism, this book goes beyond the limits of institutional history by suggesting a new and different approach to the examination of denominations. Russell E. Richey identifies within Methodism four distinct "languages" and explores the self-understanding that each language offers the early Methodists. One of these, a pietistic or evangelical vernacular, commonly employed in sermons, letters, and journals, is Richey's focus and provides a way for him to reconsider critical interpretive issues in American religious historiography and the study of Methodism. Richey challenges some important historical conventions, for instance, that the crucial changes in American Methodism occurred in 1784 when ties with John Wesley and Britain were severed, arguing instead for important continuities between the first and subsequent decades of Methodist experience.

As Richey shows, the pietistic vernacular did not displace other Methodist languages Wesleyan, Anglican, or the language of American political discourse nor can it supplant them as interpretive devices. Instead, attention to the vernacular severs to highlight the tensions among the other Methodist languages and to suggest something of the complexity of early Methodist discourse. It reveals the incomplete connections made among the several languages, the resulting imprecisions and confusions that derived from using idioms from different languages, and the ways the Methodists drew upon the distinct languages during times of stress, change, and conflict."

This is the third volume of Wesley's Journal to appear in the critical edition of The Works of John Wesley. Covering the period from late 1743 through 1754, it contains four "Extracts" from Wesley's Journal (6-9) which document, in Wesley's own words, an important period of expansion and organization in the Wesleyan revival. He describes in vivid detail the spread of the Methodist movement in the north and west of England, as well as its beginnings in Ireland and Scotland. This period of growing social and political tension is marked also by Wesley's theological controversies with leading figures in the Established Church and his physical confrontations with riotous mobs in the countryside. His yearly schedule included extensive travel to visit the societies, and held the first conferences of Methodist preachers in England and Ireland to settle important matters of doctrine and discipline. He produced several key writings during that time, including three volumes of Sermons and two volumes of Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament. His writings in medicine were matched by the opening of a free public dispensary, and he continued to develop other social programs in education, child care, and finance for the poor. Features footnotes to quotations, key themes, and background information.

This is the second volume of Wesley's Journal to appear in the critical edition of The Works of John Wesley. Covering the period from late 1783 to 1743, it documents--in Wesley's own words--the formative years of the Methodist revival in Great Britain. Previously unpublished material from Wesley's private diaries supplements the account in the published Journal of such key events as Wesley's first adventure in "field preaching," the growing breach between Wesley and the Moravians, the formation of the first Methodist Societies, the establishment of the New Room in Bristol and the Foundery in London, and the emergence of the "lay preachers" or "circuit riders."

Each volume in the series is rich with footnotes that identify quotations, provide references, trace key themes, and offer vital background information.

A collection of essays by leading Wesleyan/Methodist scholars Richard Heitzenrater, Roberta Bondi, David Lowes Watson, Theodore Runyon, Jean Miller Schmidt, W. Stephen Gunter, and Randy L. Maddox. These essays demontrate the specific impact Wesley's Aldersgate had not only on his life and theology, but also on subsequent generations of Methodists.

The Introduction to this edition discusses the nature of Wesley's Journal, places it in the context of autobiography as a genre, examines its construction, and discusses Wesley's frame of mind during its writings. One of the major functions of this scholarly edition is to reveal John Wesley "in the light of his involvement in the crowded forum of eighteenth century theological debate." Wesley's writings are saturated with references to Scripture, the Latin and Greek classics, the early Church Fathers, his theological predecessors, English poets and playwrights, and those "natural philosophers" exploring the wonder of God in creation.

This is the fourth in an eagerly awaited series of four volumes of John Wesley's sermons. This volume contains 18 sermons that were published in the Arminian Magazine from 1789 to 1792. It also contains 19 sermons that were taken from Wesley's manuscripts.

Of all the genres in Wesley's prodigious output, his sermons most clearly focus and expound his understanding of Christian existence. Outler's introduction in the first volume concentrates two decades of painstaking research and thought on Wesley. From this he ably sets the stage for a fuller understanding and appreciation of a major Christian heritage, a heritage which can at last be seen as a whole against the background of its sources.

The four volumes contain 151 sermons, including a number recovered from Wesley's manuscripts. These constitute the core of Wesley's doctrinal teachings upon which his own evangelical movement was founded. Following Wesley's own ordering, Dr. Outler begins with the familiar Sermons on Several Occasions, which present Wesley's basic teachings on salvation and form the bulk of the first two volumes in the series. Outler masterfully demonstrates the significance of all the subsequent sermons since they exhibit Wesley's entire approach to the Christian life. Each volume is rich with footnotes that include the identification of quotations, elucidation of references, the tracing of key themes, and vital background information on each sermon. Representing the culmination of twenty years of exhaustive research, it is the purpose of these conclusive volumes to keep alive the growing interest in Wesleyan studies for the entire Christian church.

This is the third in an eagerly awaited series of four volumes of John Wesley's sermons. This volume contains sermons 71-114 from Sermons on Several Occasions, as well as 6 additional sermons.

Of all the genres in Wesley's prodigious output, his sermons most clearly focus and expound his understanding of Christian existence. Outler's introduction in the first volume concentrates two decades of painstaking research and thought on Wesley. From this he ably sets the stage for a fuller understanding and appreciation of a major Christian heritage, a heritage which can at last be seen as a whole against the background of its sources.

The four volumes contain 151 sermons, including a number recovered from Wesley's manuscripts. These constitute the core of Wesley's doctrinal teachings upon which his own evangelical movement was founded. Following Wesley's own ordering, Dr. Outler begins with the familiar Sermons on Several Occasions, which present Wesley's basic teachings on salvation and form the bulk of the first two volumes in the series. Outler masterfully demonstrates the significance of all the subsequent sermons since they exhibit Wesley's entire approach to the Christian life. Each volume is rich with footnotes that include the identification of quotations, elucidation of references, the tracing of key themes, and vital background information on each sermon. Representing the culmination of twenty years of exhaustive research, it is the purpose of these conclusive volumes to keep alive the growing interest in Wesleyan studies for the entire Christian church.

Peter Cartwright (September 1, 1785 September 25, 1872) was an American Methodist revivalist and politician in Illinois. He helped start the Second Great Awakening and personally baptized twelve thousand converts.In 1828 and again in1832 he was elected to the lower house of the Illinois General Assembly. As a Methodist Circuit Rider, Cartwright rode circuits in Tennessee and Kentucky."

This is the second in an eagerly awaited series of four volumes of John Wesley's sermons. This volume contains sermons 34-70 from Sermons on Several Occasions.

Of all the genres in Wesley's prodigious output, his sermons most clearly focus and expound his understanding of Christian existence. Outler's introduction in the first volume concentrates two decades of painstaking research and thought on Wesley. From this he ably sets the stage for a fuller understanding and appreciation of a major Christian heritage, a heritage which can at last be seen as a whole against the background of its sources.

The four volumes contain 151 sermons, including a number recovered from Wesley's manuscripts. These constitute the core of Wesley's doctrinal teachings upon which his own evangelical movement was founded. Following Wesley's own ordering, Dr. Outler begins with the familiar Sermons on Several Occasions, which present Wesley's basic teachings on salvation and form the bulk of the first two volumes in the series. Outler masterfully demonstrates the significance of all the subsequent sermons since they exhibit Wesley's entire approach to the Christian life. Each volume is rich with footnotes that include the identification of quotations, elucidation of references, the tracing of key themes, and vital background information on each sermon. Representing the culmination of twenty years of exhaustive research, it is the purpose of these conclusive volumes to keep alive the growing interest in Wesleyan studies for the entire Christian church.

A comprehensive one-volume history of American Methodism, tracing the development of a new church in a new nation from its beginnings with the Wesleys in England to the changes and challenges of later twentieth-century America. Black Methodism, the contributions of women, theological trends across 200 years--all emerge in clear detail. This book also includes the story of the Evangelical United Brethren Church as part of Methodism, as well as the cultural and religious pluralism of the country today.

If your worship consists of dry, rigid orders from the past, your church will die. If your worship, however, becomes the focus of life of every member in your congregation, your church will live. Through a worksheet format that culls information and references from the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal, 1992 United Methodist Book of Worship, and 1992 Revised Common Lectionary, you'll be able to more effectively integrate preaching, music, movement, and environment.

These 32 essays (over 500 print pages) accent United Methodism in the United States and the traditions contributory to it. They provide new perspectives and fresh readings on important Methodist topics, including how Methodism appealed to the common folk and how it configured itself as a folk movement. Similar findings derive from the number of essays that explore gender and family. Here also are new readings on spirituality, worship, the diaconate, stewardship, organization, ecumenism, reform, and ordination (male/female; black/white). Less conventional subjects include the relation of Methodism to the American party system and Methodist accumulation of wealth and the wealthy.

Women in the United Methodist tradition have long expressed their commitment to Christ and to their sisters and brothers. Here is a collection of essays and primary source documents that tells the stories of pioneering ministries of United Methodist women--of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds--from the eighteenth century. Each essay traces the individual faith journeys and self-understanding of its subject. The stories also reveal the sexism and racism that confronted each woman overtly or covertly in church and society, as well as their own attitudes toward it.

A selection of primary source documents by the subject follows each essay; these personal statements express vividly each woman's vision of vocation. In this way, the volume provides a lens for interpreting and analyzing the subjects' lives through their own words and enables women and men of today to identify with the commitment, experiences, and struggles of these pioneers and apply them to their own faith journeys. Thus, through the witness of these women, Spirituality and Social Responsibility calls the church to accountability and discipleship, both pastorally and prophetically.

This is the first volume published in more than twenty years that is specifically focused on the theology of evangelism in the Wesleyan tradition. It contains essays written by key Methodist leaders from Asia, America, Europe, and Africa, thus offering a wide range of views of the nature and purpose of evangelism in the Weslayen heritage. It also provides focused and stimulating theological reflection. These essays were first presented as a symposium at the Mission Resource Center at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1992.

For the first time, students of Wesley have access to Albert C. Outler's widely acclaimed "introduction" to Volume 1 of The Works of John Wesley in a single inexpensive paperback.

No student of John Wesley will need to be reminded of Albert Outler's stature, or the significance of his contribution to twentieth-century Wesleyan studies.

Contents A Career in Retrospect The Preacher and His Preaching The Sermon Corpus Theological Method and the Problems of development Wesley and His Sources On Reading Wesley's Sermons

This volume is intended to set in historical context the official United Methodist theological statements in the Disciplines of 1972 and 1988, and to foster reflection on and discussion of the 1988 statement.

Yoke of Obedience