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Books > Christianity > Protestantism & Protestant Churches > Methodist Churches
In this notable contribution to the study of John Wesley and George
Whitefield, Ian Maddock discovers the affinity between two
preachers often contrasted as enemies. The controversial Free Grace
episode of the early eighteenth century, which highlighted the
theological divisions between Wesley's Arminianism and Whitefield's
Calvinism, has influenced the scholarly division of these
forerunners of the Eighteenth Century Revival, resulting in a
polarised critical heritage. In a critical assessment of John
Wesley, the 'scholar preacher', and George Whitefield, the 'actor
preacher', Maddock gives due attention to their differences but
unifies them in their commitment to the authority of the Bible,
their rhetorical devices and their thematic similarities, showing
how they often explicated different theories with the same
evidence. Men of One Book explains how these contemporaries, who
each knew of the other at Oxford University and as preachers, each
faced ecclesiastical opposition and social stigma, but sought for a
print-and-preach ministry in which the spoken and written word
would spread the Gospel throughout the transatlantic world. 'Men of
One Book' is a volume that will interest anyone concerned with the
Eighteenth Century Revival, the rise of Methodism or the history of
evangelicalism. Ian J. Maddock is Lecturer in Theology at Sydney
Missionary and Bible College, and received his PhD from the
University of Aberdeen. 'A wonderful comparative treatment of the
two dominant preachers of the first Great Awakening. Maddock is
equally sure-footed working meticulously through the voluminous
manuscript sermons of Wesley and Whitefield as if painting the
details of their complex and interwoven leadership of the
evangelical revivals. There is no other work that so faithfully
renders portraits of these two on their own terms as well as in
relation to each other.' Richard Lints, Andrew Mutch Distinguished
Professor of Theology, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
The face of John Wesley (1703-91), the Methodist leader, became one
of the most familiar images in the English-speaking and
transatlantic worlds through the late eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. After the dozen or so painted portraits made during his
lifetime came numbers of posthumous portraits and moralising 'scene
paintings', and hundreds of variations of prints. It was calculated
that six million copies were produced of one print alone - an 1827
portrait by John Jackson R.A. as frontispiece for a hymn book.
Illustrated by nearly one hundred images, many in colour, with a
comprehensive appendix listing known Wesley images, this book
offers a much-needed comprehensive and critical survey of one of
the most influential religious and public figures of
eighteenth-century Britain. Besides chapters on portraits from the
life and after, scene paintings and prints, it explores aspects of
Wesley's (and Methodism's) attitudes to art, and the personality
cult which gathered around Wesley as Methodism expanded globally.
It will be of interest to art historians as a treatment of an
individual sitter and subject, as well as to scholars engaged in
Wesley and Methodist studies. It is also significant for the field
of material studies, given the spread and use of the image, on
artefacts as well as on paper.
Despite being widely recognized as John Wesley's key moment of
Christian conversion, Aldersgate has continued to mystify regarding
its exact meaning and significance to Wesley personally. This book
brings clarity to the impact this event had on Wesley over the
course of his lifetime by closely examining all of Wesley's
writings pertaining to Aldersgate and framing them within the wider
context of contemporary conversion narratives. The central aim of
this study is to establish Wesley's interpretation of his
Aldersgate experience as it developed from its initial impressions
on the night of 24 May 1738 to its mature articulation in the
1770s. By paying close attention to the language of his diaries,
letters, journals, sermons, tracts and other writings, fresh
insights into Wesley's own perspective are revealed. When these
insights are brought into wider context of other conversion
narratives in the Christian milieu in which Wesley worked and
wrote, this book demonstrates that this single event contributed in
significant ways to the ethos of the Methodist movement, and many
other denominations, even up to the present day. This is a unique
study of the conversion of one of history's most influential
Christian figures, and the impact that such narratives still have
on us today. As such, it will be of great use to scholars of
Methodism, theology, religious history and religious studies more
generally.
A collection of essays that aim to consider broad questions of the
role of religion in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century
Britain by studying a single geographical area. Coalbrookdale in
the parish of Madeley, Shropshire is seen as the "birthplace of the
industrial revolution" while remaining one of the last examples of
a Methodist parish in England. These works engage with a variety of
areas of study: Methodism's roots and growth in relation to the
Church of England, religion and gender in eighteenth century
Britain, and religion and the emergence of an industrial society,
and do so from a variety of different approaches: historical,
theological, economic and sociological. The result is not only a
through examination of a single parish but a consideration of its
relation to larger themes in eighteenth-century Britain and the
impact of English Methodism on nineteenth-century American
Methodism.
John Wesley has arguably influenced more English-speaking
Christians than any other Protestant interpreter. One reason for
this wide influence is that Wesley often spoke about the "heart"
and its "affections"-that realm of life where all humans experience
their deepest satisfactions, as well as some of their deepest
conundrums. However, one of the problems of interpreting and
appropriating Wesley is that we have been blinded to Wesley's
actual views about "heart religion" by contemporary stereotypes
about "affections" or "emotions." Because of this, it is rare that
either Wesley's friends or his critics appreciate his sophisticated
understanding of affective reality. To make clear what Wesley meant
when he emphasized the renewal of the heart, Gregory S. Clapper
summarizes some recent paradigm-changing accounts of the nature of
"emotion" produced by contemporary philosophers and theologians,
and then applies them to Wesley's conception of the heart and its
affections. These accounts of emotion throw new light on Wesley's
vision of Christianity as a renewal of the heart and make it
possible to reclaim the language of the heart, not as a pandering
or manipulative rhetoric, but as the framework for a comprehensive
theological vision of Christian life and thought. The book closes
with several practical applications that make clear the power of
Wesley's vision to transform lives today.
Scholars have historically associated John Wesley's educational
endeavours with the boarding school he established at Kingswood,
near Bristol, in 1746. However, his educational endeavours extended
well beyond that single institution, even to non-Methodist
educational programmes. This book sets out Wesley's thinking and
practice concerning child-rearing and education, particularly in
relation to gender and class, in its broader eighteenth-century
social and cultural context. Drawing on writings from Churchmen,
Dissenters, economists, philosophers and reformers as well as
educationalists, this study demonstrates that the political,
religious and ideological backdrop to Wesley's work was neither
static nor consistent. It also highlights Wesley's
eighteenth-century fellow Evangelicals including Lady Huntingdon,
John Fletcher, Hannah More and Robert Raikes to demonstrate whether
Wesley's thinking and practice around schooling was in any way
unique. This study sheds light on how Wesley's attitudes to
education were influencing and influenced by the society in which
he lived and worked. As such, it will be of great interest to
academics with an interest in Methodism, education and
eighteenth-century attitudes towards gender and class.
The Independent Methodists have never been a large denomination,
and even in the Northwest of England, their heartland, their
history is little known. From the beginnings of the movement
shortly after the death of John Wesley, the author describes the
formative influences in the first half of the nineteenth century -
Methodist, Quaker and Revivalist - that shaped it, giving it a
distinctively lay character unusual in Methodism. The social and
political factors that affected its development, such as the
Peterloo Massacre, the Beerhouse Act and Chartism are explored.
Early Independent Methodist societies often arose from breaches in
Wesleyan Methodism over radical politics, and they also differed
from the Wesleyans in allowing writing to be taught in Sunday
Schools. Other societies came into being through the attraction of
a 'free' ministry, particularly in communities where poverty was
prevalent; this attracted some dissident Primitive Methodists. In
the second half of the nineteenth century, Independent Methodism
took on the characteristics of a denomination, with a connexional
structure. Dr Dolan examines the involvement of the Independent
Methodists in wider society and their contribution to public life.
Five Independent Methodists became MPs, while many others held
civic office as mayors, aldermen and councillors. For over a
hundred years, the denomination has involved itself in the
ecumenical movement, climaxing with the decision in 2004 to enter
into a covenant partnership with the Baptist Union of Great
Britain. Dr Dolan explores many aspects of Independent Methodism,
including its theology, which veered between conservative
evangelicalism and theological liberalism. He also shows how
attitudes towards ministry have changed over 200 years. For over
two centuries Independent Methodists have maintained their
distinctive threefold standpoint. John Dolan, one of their number,
has written a comprehensive study of the movement. It has entailed
tracking down the primary sources, published and unpublished, for a
host of autonomous chapels, many of them extinct, and making a
sustained analysis of the developing trends in their corporate
life. The task has been pursued with an acute awareness of the
changing social and religious climate they inhabited. The resulting
account is thorough, persuasive and illuminating. One of the most
fascinating pieces in the Evangelical Nonconformist mosaic has now
received its due. From the Foreword by Professor David Bebbington
The important questions in ecumenical dialogue centre upon issues
of authority and order. This book uses the development of ministry
in the early Methodist Church to explore the origins of the
Methodist Order and identify the nature of authority exercised by
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church. Showing Methodism
as having been founded upon Episcopalian principles, but in a
manner reinterpreted by its founder, Adrian Burdon charts the
journey made by John Wesley and his people towards the ordination
of preachers, which became such a major issue amongst the first
Methodist Societies. Implications for understanding the nature and
practice of authority and order in modern Methodism are explored,
with particular reference to the covenant for unity between English
Methodists and the Church of England.
The face of John Wesley (1703-91), the Methodist leader, became one
of the most familiar images in the English-speaking and
transatlantic worlds through the late eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries. After the dozen or so painted portraits made during his
lifetime came numbers of posthumous portraits and moralising 'scene
paintings', and hundreds of variations of prints. It was calculated
that six million copies were produced of one print alone - an 1827
portrait by John Jackson R.A. as frontispiece for a hymn book.
Illustrated by nearly one hundred images, many in colour, with a
comprehensive appendix listing known Wesley images, this book
offers a much-needed comprehensive and critical survey of one of
the most influential religious and public figures of
eighteenth-century Britain. Besides chapters on portraits from the
life and after, scene paintings and prints, it explores aspects of
Wesley's (and Methodism's) attitudes to art, and the personality
cult which gathered around Wesley as Methodism expanded globally.
It will be of interest to art historians as a treatment of an
individual sitter and subject, as well as to scholars engaged in
Wesley and Methodist studies. It is also significant for the field
of material studies, given the spread and use of the image, on
artefacts as well as on paper.
Methodism played an important part in the spread of Christianity
from its European heartlands to the Americas, Asia, Africa and the
Pacific. From John Wesley's initial reluctance, via haphazard
ventures and over-ambitious targets, a well-organized and supported
Wesleyan Society developed. Smaller branches of British Methodism
undertook their own foreign missions. This book, together with a
companion volume on the 20th century, offers an account of the
overseas mission activity of British and Irish Methodists, its
roots and fruits. John Pritchard explores many aspects of mission,
ranging from Labrador to New Zealand and from Sierra Leone to Sri
Lanka, from open air preaching to political engagement, from the
isolation of early pioneers to the creation of self-governing
churches. Tracing the nineteenth-century missionary work of the
Churches with Wesleyan roots which went on to unite in 1932,
Pritchard explores the shifting theologies and attitudes of
missionaries who crossed cultural and geographical frontiers as
well as those at home who sent and supported them. Necessarily
selective in the personalities and events it describes, this book
offers a comprehensive overview of a world-changing movement - a
story packed with heroism, mistakes, achievements, frustrations,
arguments, personalities, rascals and saints.
The United Methodist Church has been in conflict over
lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender inclusion issues since 1972. That
year, in response to the gay liberation and gay rights movements,
wording was added to the UMC Book of Discipline (the compilation of
denominational policies and doctrines) characterizing homosexuality
as "incompatible with Christian teaching." Since then, United
Methodist ministers have been forbidden to perform same-sex
commitment ceremonies (and United Methodist churches forbidden to
host them), a rule has been passed that non-heterosexual United
Methodist ministers must be celibate, and the UMC has forbidden the
funding of any program or organization "supporting" homosexuality.
These policies have been met with significant resistance by those
fighting for GLBT inclusion. In this groundbreaking book,
Udis-Kessler examines this struggle, analyzing both sides of this
divisive debate among one of the most prominent religious
organizations in the United States.
The twentieth century saw the spectacular growth of Christianity in
much of the global south, the transformation of mission fields into
self-governing Churches, schemes of church union (some successful,
others abortive), evolving attitudes to other faiths and
significant Christian engagement with issues of racial justice and
world poverty. This book examines the contribution of the Methodist
Missionary Society (and its predecessors before 1932) to these
world-changing movements, from the remarkable mass conversions in
south-west China and west Africa early in the century to the
controversy over grants to liberation movements in the 1970s and
1980s. Pritchard traces the MMS contribution to education, health
care, rural development and social welfare and describes the
administration of the Societies and the selection and preparation
of candidates for missionary service. This is a ground-breaking
study of Methodist Overseas Mission in the twentieth century, how
it adjusted to changing circumstances - including the forced
withdrawals from China and Burma - and developed new initiatives
and partnerships, including its World Church in Britain programme
which brought missionaries from the younger Churches to serve in
Britain and Ireland.
Is There a Way to Heaven? The great evangelist John Wesley believed
there is, and he developed his theology to help people make the
journey from sin to salvation. In Wesley's "order of salvation,"
God's grace is the keynote from start to finish. The Way to Heaven
is a twentieth-anniversary revision of John Wesley's Message for
Today. Dr. Steve Harper presents Wesley's writings and the ideas of
Wesley scholars in language that is clear and accessible but never
simplistic. Written in the spirit of Wesley, here are "plain words
for plain people." The heart of this book is a thoughtful and
inspiring look at Wesley's theology of grace and its power to
transform. Included are two new chapters. "Vision and Means"
explores Wesley's mission and methods, and "To Serve the Present
Age" considers the impact and relevance of his message today. In
addition, an updated reading list facilitates further study, and
questions at the end of each chapter stimulate personal reflection
and small group discussion. Ideal as a textbook or for personal
study and reflection, this book will advance your knowledge and
piety as you travel "the way to heaven."
Published in 1793-6, amid controversy following the death of John
Wesley (1703-91), this two-volume work vied with others for status
as the most authentic biography of the Methodist leader. Wesley had
left his papers to his physician John Whitehead (c.1740-1804) and
the ministers Thomas Coke and Henry Moore, but Whitehead
monopolised the papers in the preparation of his biography,
refusing to allow his fellow executors access - the dispute is
mentioned in the prefatory matter to Volume 1. In addition to
tracing John's career up to 1735, this volume contains accounts of
his relatives, notably a substantial life of his brother Charles
(1707-88), distinguished hymnodist and fellow founder of Methodism.
This remains an important critical appraisal of the movement's
early history, offering researchers valuable insights into the
contemporary debates over the future and structure of Methodism.
Published in 1793-6, amid controversy following the death of John
Wesley (1703-91), this two-volume work vied with others for status
as the most authentic biography of the Methodist leader. Wesley had
left his papers to his physician John Whitehead (c.1740-1804) and
the ministers Thomas Coke and Henry Moore, but Whitehead
monopolised the papers in the preparation of his biography,
refusing to allow his fellow executors access - the dispute is
mentioned in the prefatory matter to Volume 1. Volume 2 continues
the narrative from Wesley's voyage to America in 1735 until his
death. It also includes assessments of his character and writings,
as well as Whitehead's analysis of the state of Methodism at the
time of writing. This remains an important critical appraisal of
the movement's early history, offering researchers valuable
insights into the contemporary debates over the future and
structure of Methodism.
Hugh Bourne (1772-1852) was a Methodist preacher who is best known
as the co-founder of the Primitive Methodist movement. After
converting to Methodism in 1799, Bourne became influenced by the
evangelical American Lorenzo Dow (1777-1834) and together with
William Clowes held an open-air evangelical meeting in 1807. Such
gatherings were prohibited by the Methodist Conference, and the two
were expelled by the Methodist Society in 1808. They formed the
Primitive Methodist Connexion in 1810, with Bourne assuming a
leading role in the movement. This volume, first published in 1854
and written by Bourne's nephew John Walford, contains a detailed
biography of Bourne. Using private papers inherited on Bourne's
death, his childhood, conversion and the founding of the movement
are described, with his leadership of the Connexion also discussed.
This biography provides valuable information concerning Bourne's
life and motivations during and after the founding of the movement.
Methodist missionary Thomas Birch Freeman (1809 1890) was one of
the most successful missionaries of his day, founding churches in
Nigeria and the Gold Coast. The son of an African father and
English mother, he possessed great diplomatic skills in dealing
with colonial administrators and native rulers, and Methodist
churches spread rapidly using literate converts as lay preachers,
particularly among freed and repatriated slaves. His resignation
was caused by financial problems due to poor accounting. His
Journal was serialised in a Methodist periodical between 1840 and
1843, published as a book in 1843, and revised the following year.
His attempts to get the slave trade and the practice of human
sacrifice abolished in Dahomey were frustrated, but he was much
more successful in founding missions. The book is a fascinating
picture of life in West Africa in the mid-nineteenth century.
Holliday Bickerstaff Kendall (1844 1919) was a Methodist minister
and a social historian. Born into a family of Primitive Methodist
ministers, Kendall himself served as a minister between 1864 and
1903. This volume, written during his retirement and first
published in 1919, contains Kendall's history of the origins and
development of the Primitive Methodist movement. The movement
originated with Hugh Bourne (1772 1852) and William Clowes (1780
1851), who attempted to restore the mass evangelism they thought
had been lost in the Wesleyan Church after 1810. Kendall explores
the social and political context of this period, and discusses
Bourne's and Clowes' influence on the origins of the movement. He
then describes the growth and development of the movement in the
nineteenth century, discussing the expansion of the church until
1918. This clear and concise volume is considered the definitive
work on the history of the movement.
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