Designed as a companion to mentors and those training mentors, Mentoring Into Vocation offers a comprehensive framework for guiding persons into ordained or lay vocations. Written specifically from the perspective of United Methodist polity and theology, the book provides leaders in annual conferences charged with oversight of candidacy and clergy mentoring programs with theological grounding, touchstones along the mentoring journey, and a spiritual and theological focus for their work. The book is also an excellent resource for mentoring laity into their vocations in the world. This revised edition contains a new foreword.

The first critical and complete edition of Charles Wesley's manuscript journal in two volumes.
While remaining firmly committed to the Church of England, Charles Wesley shared in the founding of Methodism, a religious movement that has had far-reaching social and religious influence worldwide. These volumes of Charles Wesley's manuscript journal is the first complete edition. Included are all transcribed shorthand passages, words that Charles underlined, other forms of emphasis or peculiarities in Charles's script, word that Charles struck out. Any uncertain reading or transcription is indicated in the footnotes. In addition there is an annotated index of persons, places, and sermon texts in Volume II. Volume I is Wesley's manuscript journal from 1736 to 1741. Volume II is Wesley's manuscript journal from 1743 to 1756.

A novelized biography from the viewpoint of Susanna Wesley. Creative and easy to read.

George Whitefield (1714-70) was one of the best known and most widely travelled evangelical revivalist in the eighteenth century. For a time in the middle decades of the eighteenth century, Whitefield was the most famous person on both sides of the Atlantic. An Anglican clergyman, Whitefield soon transcended his denominational context as his itinerant ministry fuelled a Protestant renewal movement in Britain and the American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism, establishing a distinct brand of the movement with a Calvinist orientation, but also the leading itinerant and international preacher of the evangelical movement in its early phase. Called the 'Apostle of the English empire', he preached throughout the whole of the British Isles and criss-crossed the Atlantic seven times, preaching in nearly every town along the eastern seaboard of America. His own fame and popularity were such that he has been dubbed 'Anglo-America's first religious celebrity', and even one of the 'Founding Fathers of the American Revolution'. This collection offers a major reassessment of Whitefield's life, context, and legacy, bringing together a distinguished interdisciplinary team of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic. In chapters that cover historical, theological, and literary themes, many addressed for the first time, the volume suggests that Whitefield was a highly complex figure who has been much misunderstood. Highly malleable, Whitefield's persona was shaped by many audiences during his lifetime and continues to be highly contested.

"Living in the Gaze of God" offers an accessible exploration of the theme of ministerial accountability through the lens of one reflective tool - that of formal supervision of ministerial practice. Bold and far-reaching, the book addresses the key presenting issues around a need for a change of culture in the church as regards accountability for ministerial practice. It outlines a theological and practical model of 1-to-1 supervision, arguing that such an approach enables the development of greater attentiveness to God, the self and others and thus enhances accountability. Laying aside the need to offer a 'how-to' approach, Helen Cameron instead brings us a rigorous and dynamic consideration of the interface between supervision, accountability and ministerial practice, and offers a theological underpinning for the issues.

Samuel Wesley and the Crisis of Tory Piety, 1685-1720 uses the experiences of Samuel Wesley (1662-1735) to examine what life was like in the Church of England for Tory High Church clergy. These clergy felt alienated from the religious and political settlement of 1689 and found themselves facing the growth of religious toleration. They often linked this to a rise in immorality and a sense of the decline in religious values. Samuel Wesley's life saw a series of crises including his decision to leave Dissent and conform to the Church of England, his imprisonment for debt in 1705, his shortcomings as a priest, disagreements with his bishop, his marriage breakdown and the haunting of his rectory by a ghost or poltergeist. Wesley was also a leading member of the Convocation of the Church during the crisis years of 1710-14. In each of these episodes, Wesley's Toryism and High Church principles played a key role in his actions. They also show that the years between 1685 and 1720 were part of a 'long Glorious Revolution' which was not confined to 1688-9. This 'long Revolution' was experienced by Tory High Church clergy as a series of turning points in which the Whig forces strengthened their control of politics and the Church. Using newly discovered sources, and providing fresh insights into the life and work of Samuel Wesley, William Gibson explores the world of the Tory High Church clergy in the period 1685-1720.

Over the course of the past 40 years, painter John Wesley has created a remarkably singular body of work whose subject is no less than the American psyche. While many artists of his generation have used popular images to explore the cultural landscape, Wesley has employed comic strip style and compositional rigor to make deeply personal, often hermetic paintings that strike at the core of our most primal fears, joys and desires. In this first volume ever to collect the entire iconic Bumstead series, which spans from 1974 until the present, we are introduced to several paintings that have never been reproduced before. These are dark and erotic works, sly and witty without ever giving too much away. Linda Norden described them thus in Parkett 62: "The Bumstead paintings--whether detailing scenes of domestic misunderstanding, zooming in on off-camera moments of bafflement or simply scanning empty halls and walls for private memories--are excruciatingly specific representations of the gulfs between feeling and comprehension... smart, funny, startling, irreverently empathetic and often heartbreaking, they are a welcome antidote to more laborious discourse." With an insightful new essay by Robert Hobbs.

"The Methodists and Revolutionary America" is the first in-depth narrative of the origins of American Methodism, one of the most significant popular movements in American history. Placing Methodism's rise in the ideological context of the American Revolution and the complex social setting of the greater Middle Atlantic where it was first introduced, Dee Andrews argues that this new religion provided an alternative to the exclusionary politics of Revolutionary America. With its call to missionary preaching, its enthusiastic revivals, and its prolific religious societies, Methodism competed with republicanism for a place at the center of American culture.

Based on rare archival sources and a wealth of Wesleyan literature, this book examines all aspects of the early movement. From Methodism's Wesleyan beginnings to the prominence of women in local societies, the construction of African Methodism, the diverse social profile of Methodist men, and contests over the movement's future, Andrews charts Methodism's metamorphosis from a British missionary organization to a fully Americanized church. Weaving together narrative and analysis, Andrews explains Methodism's extraordinary popular appeal in rich and compelling new detail.

Beginning as a renewal movement within Anglicanism in the eighteenth century, Methodism had become the largest Protestant denomination in the USA in the nineteenth century, and is today one of the most vibrant forms of Christianity. Representing a complex spiritual and evangelistic experiment that involves a passionate commitment to worldwide mission, it covers a global network of Christian denominations. In this Very Short Introduction William J. Abraham trace Methodism from its origins in the work of John Wesley and the hymns of his brother, Charles Wesley, in the eighteenth century, right up to the present. Considering the identity, nature, and history of Methodism, Abraham provides a fresh account of the place of Methodism in the life and thought of the Christian Church. Describing the message of Methodism, and who the Methodists are, he also considers the practices of Methodism, and discusses the global impact of Methodism and its decline in the homelands. Finally Abraham looks forward, and considers the future prospects for Methodism. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

The impact of St. Mark's Community Center and United Methodist Church on the city of New Orleans is immense. Their stories are dramatic reflections of the times. But these stories are more than mere reflections because St. Mark's changed the picture, leading the way into different understandings of what urban diversity could and should mean. This book looks at the contributions of St. Mark's, in particular the important role played by women (especially deaconesses) as the church confronted social issues through the rise of the social gospel movement and into the modern civil rights era.
Ellen Blue uses St. Mark's as a microcosm to tell a larger, overlooked story about women in the Methodist Church and the sources of reform. One of the few volumes on women's history within the church, this book challenges the dominant narrative of the social gospel movement and its past.
"St. Mark's and the Social Gospel" begins by examining the period between 1895 and World War I, chronicling the center's development from its early beginnings as a settlement house that served immigrants and documenting the early social gospel activities of Methodist women in New Orleans. Part II explores the efforts of subsequent generations of women to further gender and racial equality between the 1920s and 1960. Major topics addressed in this section include an examination of the deaconesses' training in Christian Socialist economic theory and the church's response to the Brown decision. The third part focuses on the church's direct involvement in the school desegregation crisis of 1960, including an account of the pastor who broke the white boycott of a desegregated elementary school by taking his daughter back to class there. Part IV offers a brief look at the history of St. Mark's since 1965.
Shedding new light on an often neglected subject, "St. Mark's and the Social Gospel" will be welcomed by scholars of religious history, local history, social history, and women's studies.

George Whitefield (1714-70) was one of the best known and most widely travelled evangelical revivalists in the eighteenth century. For a time in the middle decades of the eighteenth century, Whitefield was the most famous person on both sides of the Atlantic. An Anglican clergyman, Whitefield soon transcended his denominational context as his itinerant ministry fuelled a Protestant renewal movement in Britain and the American colonies. He was one of the founders of Methodism, establishing a distinct brand of the movement with a Calvinist orientation, but also the leading itinerant and international preacher of the evangelical movement in its early phase. Called the 'Apostle of the English empire', he preached throughout the whole of the British Isles and criss-crossed the Atlantic seven times, preaching in nearly every town along the eastern seaboard of America. His own fame and popularity were such that he has been dubbed 'Anglo-America's first religious celebrity', and even one of the 'Founding Fathers of the American Revolution'. This collection offers a major reassessment of Whitefield's life, context, and legacy, bringing together a distinguished interdisciplinary team of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic. In chapters that cover historical, theological, and literary themes, many addressed for the first time, the volume suggests that Whitefield was a highly complex figure who has been much misunderstood. Highly malleable, Whitefield's persona was shaped by many audiences during his lifetime and continues to be highly contested.

In his day, John Wesley offered important insights on how to obtain knowledge of God that readily bears fruit in our own times. As premiere Wesleyan scholar William Abraham shows, Wesley's most famous spiritual experience is rife with philosophical significance and implications. Throughout, Abraham brings Wesley's works into fruitful conversation with some of the most important work in contemporary epistemology. Lyrically and succinctly he explores the simultaneous epistemological quest and spiritual pilgrimage that were central to Wesley and the Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century. In so doing, he provides a learned and eye-opening meditation upon the relationship between reason and faith.

Originally published during the early part of the twentieth century, the Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature were designed to provide concise introductions to a broad range of topics. They were written by experts for the general reader and combined a comprehensive approach to knowledge with an emphasis on accessibility. Methodism by H. B. Workman was first published in 1912. The text contains a historical account of the development of Methodism and John Wesley's role in this process, together with an outline sketch of Methodist theology and practice.

The growing appeal of abolitionism and its increasing success in converting Americans to the antislavery cause, a generation before the Civil War, is clearly revealed in this book on the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. The moral character of the antislavery movement is stressed. Originally published in 1965. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

A leading figure in the Evangelical Revival in eighteenth-century England, John Wesley (1703 1791) is the founding father of Methodism and, by extension, of the holiness and Pentecostal movements. This Cambridge Companion offers a general, comprehensive introduction to Wesley s life and work, and to his theological and ecclesiastical legacy. Written from various disciplinary perspectives, including history, literature, theology, and religious studies, this volume will be an invaluable aid to scholars and students, including those encountering the work and thought of Wesley for the first time.

The growing appeal of abolitionism and its increasing success in converting Americans to the antislavery cause, a generation before the Civil War, is clearly revealed in this book on the Methodist Episcopal Church in America. The moral character of the antislavery movement is stressed. Originally published in 1965. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

"I felt my heart strangely warmed." That was how John Wesley described his transformational experience of God's grace at Aldersgate Street on May 24, 1738, an event that some mark as the beginning of the Methodist Church. Yet the story of Methodism, while clearly shaped by John Wesley's sermons and Charles Wesley's hymns, is much richer and more expansive. In this book, Methodist theologian Jeffrey W. Barbeau provides a brief and helpful introduction to the history of Methodism-from the time of the Wesleys, through developments in North America, to its diverse and global communion today-as well as its primary beliefs and practices. With Barbeau's guidance, both those who are already familiar with the Wesleyan tradition and those seeking to know more about this significant movement within the church's history will find their hearts warmed to Methodism.

A critical contribution to the history of Britain and the U.S., this book demonstrates how the search for personal supernatural power lay at the heart of the so-called eighteenth-century English evangelical revival. John Kent rejects the view that the Wesleys rescued the British from moral and spiritual decay by reviving primitive Christianity. The study is of interest to everyone concerned with the history of Methodism and the Church of England, the Evangelical tradition, and eighteenth-century religious thought and experience.