A study of skilled artisans in the 1820s and 1830s whose evangelical faith raised suspicions toward capitalist innovations.

When industrialization swept through American society in the nineteenth century, it brought with it turmoil for skilled artisans. Changes in technology and work offered unprecedented opportunity for some, but the deskilling of craft and the rise of factory work meant dislocation for others. Journeymen for Jesus explores how the artisan community in one city, Baltimore, responded to these life-changing developments during the years of the early republic.

Baltimore in the Jacksonian years (1820s and 1830s) was America's third largest city. Its unions rivaled those of New York and Philadelphia in organization and militancy, and it was also a stronghold of evangelical Methodism. These circumstances created a powerful mix at a time when workers were confronting the negative effects of industrialism. Many of them found within Methodism and its populist spirituality an empowering force that inspired their refusal to accept dependency and second-class citizenship.

Historians often portray evangelical Protestantism as either a top-down means of social control or as a bottom-up process that created passive workers. Sutton, however, reveals a populist evangelicalism that undergirded the producer tradition dominant among those supportive of trade union goals. Producers were not socialists or social democrats, but they were anticapitalist and reform-minded. In populist evangelicalism they discovered a potent language and ethic for their discontent.

Journeymen for Jesus presents a rich and unromanticized portrait of artisan culture in early America. In the process, itadds to our understanding of the class tensions present in Jacksonian America.

With the conclusion of the Civil War, the beginnings of Reconstruction, and the realities of emancipation, former slaves were confronted with the possibility of freedom and, with it, a new way of life. In The Times Were Strange and Stirring, Reginald F. Hildebrand examines the role of the Methodist Church in the process of emancipation--and in shaping a new world at a unique moment in American, African American, and Methodist history.Hildebrand explores the ideas and ideals of missionaries from several branches of Methodism--the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, and the northern-based Methodist Episcopal Church--and the significant and highly charged battle waged between them over the challenge and meaning of freedom. He traces the various strategies and goals pursued by these competing visions and develops a typology of some of the ways in which emancipation was approached and understood.Focusing on individual church leaders such as Lucius H. Holsey, Richard Harvey Cain, and Gilbert Haven, and with the benefit of extensive research in church archives and newspapers, Hildebrand tells the dramatic and sometimes moving story of how missionaries labored to organize their denominations in the black South, and of how they were overwhelmed at times by the struggles of freedom.

The Dumville family settled in central Illinois during an era of division and dramatic change. Arguments over slavery raged. Railroads and circuit-riding preachers brought the wider world to the prairie. Irish and German immigrants flooded towns and churches. Anne M. Heinz and John P. Heinz draw from an extraordinary archive at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum to reveal how Ann Dumville and her daughters Jemima, Hephzibah, and Elizabeth lived these times. The letters tell the story of Ann, expelled from her Methodist church for her unshakable abolitionist beliefs; the serious and religious Jemima, a schoolteacher who started each school day with prayer; Elizabeth, enduring hard work as a farmer's wife, far away from the others; and Hephzibah, observing human folly and her own marriage prospects with the same wicked wit. Though separated by circumstances, the Dumvilles deeply engaged one another with their differing views on Methodism, politics, education, technological innovation, and relationships with employers. At the same time, the letters offer a rarely seen look at antebellum working women confronting privation, scarce opportunities, and the horrors of civil war with unwavering courage and faith.

Providing new insight into the Wesley family, the fundamental importance of music in the development of Methodism, and the history of art music in Britain, Music and the Wesleys examines more than 150 years of a rich music-making tradition in England. John Wesley and his brother Charles, founders of the Methodist movement, considered music to be a vital part of religion, while Charles's sons Charles and Samuel and grandson Samuel Sebastian were among the most important English composers of their time. This book explores the conflicts faced by the Wesleys but also celebrates their triumphs: John's determination to elevate the singing of his flock; the poetry of Charles's hymns and their musical treatment in both Britain and America; the controversial family concerts by which Charles launched his sons on their careers; the prolific output of Charles the younger; Samuel's range and rugged individuality as a composer; the oracular boldness of Sebastian's religious music and its reception around the English-speaking world. Exploring British concert life, sacred music forms, and hymnology, the contributors analyze the political, cultural, and social history of the Wesleys' enormous influence on English culture and religious practices. Contributors are Stephen Banfield, Jonathan Barry, Martin V. Clarke, Sally Drage, Peter S. Forsaith, Peter Holman, Peter Horton, Robin A. Leaver, Alyson McLamore, Geoffrey C. Moore, John Nightingale, Philip Olleson, Nicholas Temperley, J. R. Watson, Anne Bagnall Yardley, and Carlton R. Young.

This biography tells the story of John Wesley's colourful and dramatic life, beginning with his childhood and his family background, looking especially at the influence of his powerful and austere mother, Susannah. The author then goes on to examine Wesley's school and university careers (including the Holy Club), his mission to Georgia and finally his "conversion" and mission to England - including the organisation of methodist societies. Key issues in Wesley's life, such as his renunciation of wealth and the role of women, are given prominent treatment as is an assessment of Wesley's long-term impact both in this country and abroad.

Presenta la historia del movimiento wesleyano en el siglo XVII como mas que simple descripcion de la extension de la organizacion, desarrollo teologico y ampliacion misionera; pero tambien la historia del pueblo llamado metodista con el cual y por el cual Wesley consumio su tiempo y energia. Presents the history of the 17th century Wesleyan movement, not only as a description of a spreading organization, a developing theology, and a widening mission, but also the story of the people called Methodists and with whom wesley spent his time and energy.

A rare discovery, A Mysterious Life and Calling is the autobiography of Charlotte Levy Riley, who was born into slavery but after emancipation achieved a fulfilling career as a preacher in the South Carolina Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, schoolteacher, and civil servant. Although several nineteenth-century accounts by black preaching women in the northern states are known, this is the first memoir by a black woman preaching in the South, both before and after the Civil War, to be discovered. Born in 1839, Charlotte Riley recounts her unusual experiences growing up as a young slave girl in Charleston under the protection of her parents and the dominion of her wealthy owners. She was taught to read, write, and sew, despite laws forbidding black literacy, and while still a slave married a free black architect. Raised a Presbyterian, she writes in her memoir of her conversion at age fourteen to the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, embracing its ecstatic worship and led by her own spiritual visions. After the war, she separated permanently from her husband, who objected to her call to preach, and despite poor health pursued a career into the early twentieth century as a licensed minister of the AME church, a powerful preacher at multiracial revivals, and a school teacher and principal. She contributed to the civic development of South Carolina in the post-Reconstruction era and early twentieth century, including appointment in 1885 as postmistress of Lincolnville, an all-black incorporated town in South Carolina. She published her autobiography around 1902. Crystal J. Lucky discovered Riley's forgotten book in the archives of the Stokes Library at the historically black Wilberforce University in Ohio. She provides an introduction and notes to the narrative, explaining Riley's references to contemporaries, events, society, and religious practice throughout her childhood and the turbulent years of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Lucky also places A Mysterious Life and Calling in the context of other spiritual autobiographies and slave narratives.

When American Methodist preachers first arrived in Upper Canada in the 1790s, they brought with them more than an alluring religious faith. They also brought saddlebags stuffed with books published by the New York Methodist Book Concern - North America's first denominational publisher - to sell along their preaching circuits. Pulpit, Press, and Politics traces the expansion of this remarkable transnational market from its earliest days to the mid-nineteenth century, a period of intense religious struggle in Upper Canada marked by fiery revivals, political betrayals, and bitter church schisms. The Methodist Book Concern occupied a central place in all this conflict as it powerfully shaped and subverted the religious and political identities of Canadian Methodists, particularly in the wake of the American Revolution. The Concern bankrolled the bulk of Canadian Methodist preaching and missionary activities, enabled and constrained evangelistic efforts among the colony's Native groups, and clouded Methodist dealings with the British Wesleyans and other religious competitors north of the border. Even more importantly, as Methodists went on to assume a preeminent place in Upper Canada's religious, cultural, and educational life, their ongoing reliance on the Methodist Book Concern played a crucial role in opening the way for the lasting acceptance and widespread use of American books and periodicals across the region.

The Methodist Church, with its distinctive musical inheritance by which the worldwide Church has been enriched, famously expresses its theology through its singing. Its authorised hymnbook therefore means more than a hymn book does in other traditions - it expresses the central beliefs of the Church itself and is commended to congregations as their core worship resource. Seven years in development, Singing the Faith is authorised by the Methodist Conference and replaces Hymns and Psalms, published almost 30 years ago. Containing the classic, best loved hymns of the Christian tradition it also incorporates many bold and exciting elements including hymns, songs and liturgical chants from the world church. A large proportion of its 830+ items are 20th and 21st century compositions, offering congregations a feast of musical choices spanning centuries and continents. It is arranged thematically in three parts: God's Eternal Goodness - the Trinity, praise and adoration, creation, gathering for worship, Scripture and revelation God's Redeeming Work - the life of Christ revealed throughout the Christian year God's Enduring Purposes - the Holy Spirit, our life in God, prayer, the sacraments, our human journeys, the saints and the life to come. Many helpful indexes enable fitting choices to be made that will enrich all occasions of worship. This organ edition has been designed to meet the practical requirements of church musicians. With an enlarged page size and sturdily bound in three hardback volumes, it also lies flat on music stands.

On July 31, 1869, twenty-two members of the holiness movement of the Methodist church gathered to pray on a beach on the New Jersey shore. Before long, Ocean Grove was established as "God's Square Mile, " the first permanent camp meeting dedicated to the pursuit of both holiness and recreational activities. In this richly illustrated account, Troy Messenger looks at the numerous informal amusements of summer life at Ocean Grove and provides a glimpse into a fascinating moment in the development of both nineteenth-century religion and an American leisure culture.

Like other seaside resorts of the time such as Atlantic City and Coney Island, Ocean Grove boasted a festival atmosphere and offered such diversions as baby parades, oriental bazaars, pageants, beach games, ushers' marches, and drills by the Young Rough Riders. While guests were forbidden to drink, smoke, play cards, or drive their cars on Sunday, they were encouraged to enjoy other pursuits that would have scandalized pious Methodists of an earlier era, such as relaxing on the beach, taking the summer off, attending popular amusements, and staging comic gender satire with cross-dressed men. At Ocean Grove, however, even seemingly frivolous activities had a higher purpose: every aspect of daily life was focused on the attainment of perfection and all were performances of "holy leisure."

The genius of Ocean Grove, Messenger argues, was in extending holiness from the parlor meeting to the beach. Here, conservative evangelicals discovered a moral imperative to enjoy rest and recreation. By praying and playing together, the people of Ocean Grove acquired a unique understanding of self and community, one that illuminates theliberal social-reform movements of the nineteenth-century religious middle class and the early leisure industry.

Stories of faith, sacrifice, commitment and sheer grit are part of the foundation and fabric of the Church of the Nazarene. Read about the extraordinary, everyday people of faith who overcame great odds and made life-changing sacrifices for the sake of the church. Such as, the theologian who started in a converted chicken-coop, the district superintendent from skid row, the pastor extraordinaire who was elected to the beer board, and the Nazarene 'Mother Teresa.' Every effective movement in Christian history succeeded because unsung heroes gave themselves to a great cause. That cause for the Nazarenes was holiness of heart and life. Each story is alive, filled with a magnetic heartbeat, and provides a bridge to connect contemporary believers with unsung heroes of the past. These stories about very human people will nourish your spirit and remind you of the amazing delight of living the Christ-led life.