The Methodist revival originated in Epworth, North Lincolnshire, England. It began with a group of men, including John Wesley and his younger brother Charles, as a movement within the Church of England in the 18th century. The movement focused on Bible study and a methodical approach to scriptures and Christian living. The term "Methodism" was a pejorative term given to a small society of students at Oxford who met together between 1729 and 1735 for the purpose of mutual improvement. They were accustomed to receiving communion every week, fasting regularly, and abstaining from most forms of amusement and luxury. They also frequently visited the sick and the poor, as well as prisoners.
The early Methodists acted against perceived apathy in the Church of England, preaching in the open air and establishing Methodist societies wherever they went. These societies were divided into groups called classes — intimate meetings where individuals were encouraged to confess their sins to one another and to build each other up. They also took part in love feasts which allowed for the sharing of testimony, a key feature of early Methodists.
Methodist preachers were notorious for their enthusiastic sermons and often accused of fanaticism. In those days, many members of the established (Anglican) church feared that new doctrines promulgated by the Methodists, such as the necessity of a New Birth for salvation, of Justification by Faith, and of the constant and sustained action of the Holy Spirit upon the believer's soul, would produce ill effects upon weak minds. Theophilus Evans, an early critic of the movement, even wrote that it was "the natural Tendency of their Behaviour, in Voice and Gesture and horrid Expressions, to make People mad." In one of his prints, William Hogarth likewise attacked Methodists as "enthusiasts" full of "Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism." But the Methodists resisted the many attacks against their movement. (See John Wesley and George Whitefield for a much more complete discussion of early Methodism.)
In the late 1760s, two Methodist lay preachers emigrated to America and formed societies. Philip Embury began the work in New York. Soon, Captain Webb from the British Army aided him. He formed a society in Philadelphia and traveled along the coast. In 1770, two Methodist missionaries, Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor, arrived from the British Connexion, followed shortly thereafter by Francis Asbury. Asbury reorganized the mid-Atlantic work in accordance with the Wesleyan model. Internal conflict characterized this period. Missionaries displaced most of the local preachers and irritated many of the leading lay members. During the American Revolution, the "the mid-Atlantic work" (as Wesley called it) diminished, and, by 1778, the work was reduced to one circuit. Asbury refused to leave. He remained in Delaware during this period.
Various branches of Methodism in Australia merged in the 20 years from 1881, with a union of all groups except the Lay Methodists forming the Methodist Church of Australasia in 1902.[51]
In 1945 the Rev. Dr. Kingsley Ridgway offered himself as a Melbourne based "field representative" for a possible Australian branch of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America, after meeting an American serviceman who was a member of that denomination.[52] The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia was founded on his work.
The Methodist Church of Australasia merged with the majority of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and the Congregational Union of Australia in 1977, becoming the Uniting Church.[53] The Wesleyan Methodist Church of Australia continues to operate independently. There are also other independent Methodist congregations, some of which were established by, or have been impacted by, Tongan immigrants.
Fiji
As a result of the early efforts of missionaries, most of the natives of the Fiji Islands were converted to Methodism in the 1840s and 1850s.[54] Most ethnic Fijians are Methodists today (the others are largely Roman Catholic), and the Methodist Church of Fiji and Rotuma is in important social force.
^ This social analysis is a summary of a wide variety of books on Methodist history, articles in The Methodist Magazine etc. Most of the Methodist aristocracy were associated with the Countess of Huntingdon who invited Methodist preachers to gatherings she hosted. Methodists were the leaders at that time in reaching out to the poorest of the working classes in any major way. A number of soldiers were also Methodists.[55]
^Arminianism is named after Jacobus Arminius, a Dutch Reformed pastor who was trained to preach Calvinism, but concluded that some aspects of Calvinism had to be modified in the light of Scripture.[56] Both of these branches of Reformation doctrine hold as essential the "Solas" - Scripture alone, Grace alone, Faith alone, Glory to God alone.[57] John Wesley was perhaps the clearest English proponent of arminianism.[58] In spite of the differences, these twin strands have much common ground, such as that salvation is entirely a work of God alone with no work by which it can be earned (monergism), and that one cannot either turn to God nor believe unless God has first drawn a person and implanted the desire in their heart (the Wesleyan doctrine of prevenient grace).[59] The primary difference is that Arminians interpret the Bible as teaching that the saving work of Jesus Christ is for all people (general atonement) but effective only to those who believe in accordance with the Reformation principles of Grace alone and Faith alone. While also holding to these principles, the Solas, Calvinists emphasize the deterministic[60] interpretation of Election, that salvation is only for a few decreed by God (limited atonement) while all others are decreed to be condemned.[61]
^ Arnold Dallimore. George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Banner of Truth Trust, 1980.
^ Methodist World Peace Commission administered Civilian Public Service units at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina and Cherokee State (Psychiatric) Hospital in Cherokee, Iowa (list of CPS Camps).
^ abcdefgh Camerona, Richard M. Methodism and Society. Vol. 1-3. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1961. Print.
^ Luccock, Halford F., Paul Hutchinson, and Robert W. Goodloe. The Story of Methodism. Nashville, TN: Parthenon Press, 1926. Print.
^ Luccock, Halford F., Paul Hutchinson, and Robert W. Goodloe. The Story of Methodism. Nashville, TN: Parthenon Press, 1926. Print.
^ Agnew, Theodore L. The History of American Methodism: in three volumes. Volumes 1-3. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1964. Print.
^ Agnew, Theodore L. The History of American Methodism: in three volumes. Volumes 1-3. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1964. Print.
^ Agnew, Theodore L. The History of American Methodism: in three volumes. Volumes 1-3. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1964. Print.
^ Millard-Jackson, J "Who called the tune? Methodist Missionary policy in South Africa during the 19th century" in Forster, D and Bentley, W. Methodism in Southern Africa: A celebration of Wesleyan Mission. Kempton Park. AcadSA publishers (2008:31).
^ Forster, D. "God's mission in our context, healing and transforming responses" in Forster, D and Bentley, W. Methodism in Southern Africa: A celebration of Wesleyan Mission. Kempton Park. AcadSA publishers (2008:79-80)
^ Millard-Jackson, J "Who called the tune? Methodist Missionary policy in South Africa during the 19th century" in Forster, D and Bentley, W. Methodism in Southern Africa: A celebration of Wesleyan Mission. Kempton Park. AcadSA publishers (2008:34-37)
^ Forster, D. "God's mission in our context, healing and transforming responses" in Forster, D and Bentley, W. Methodism in Southern Africa: A celebration of Wesleyan Mission. Kempton Park. AcadSA publishers (2008:80)
^ Grassow, P. "William Shaw" in Forster, D and Bentley, W. Methodism in Southern Africa: A celebration of Wesleyan Mission. Kempton Park. AcadSA publishers (2008:13-25)
^ For a discussion of Church membership statistics in South Africa please refer to Forster, D. "God's mission in our context, healing and transforming responses" in Forster, D and Bentley, W. Methodism in Southern Africa: A celebration of Wesleyan Mission. Kempton Park. AcadSA publishers (2008:97-98)
^ Stephen Livingstone Baldwin, Foreign Missions of the Protestant Churches, 1900
^ J. Steven Harper, "The Way to Heaven: The Gospel According to John Wesley", (1983), ISBN 0310252601
^ J S Banks, "The development of Doctrine - Early Middle Ages to the Reformation" in the "Books for Bible Students" series, (1901), Part 3, Ch. II and VI where the issues of determinism and the differences from Luther are discussed.
^ "The Baptist Confession of Faith 1689", Section 3, p. 13, edited by Peter Masters, The Wakeman Trust, (1981), ISBN 1 870855 24 8
Cracknell, Kenneth and White, Susan J. (2005) An Introduction to World Methodism, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-81849-4.
Further reading
World
Dowson, Jean and Hutchinson, John (2003) John Wesley: His Life, Times and Legacy [CD-ROM], Methodist Publishing House, TB214
Forster, DA and Bentley, W (eds.) (2008)What are we thinking? Reflections on Church and Society from Southern African Methodists. Methodist Publishing House, Cape Town. ISBN 978-91988352-6.
Forster, DA and Bentley, W (eds.) (2008) Methodism in Southern Africa: A celebration of Wesleyan Mission AcadSA Publishers, Kempton Park. ISBN 978-1-920212-29-2
Harmon, Nolan B. (ed.) (1974) The Encyclopedia of World Methodism, Nashville: Abingdon Press, ISBN 0-687-11784-4.
Heitzenrater, Richard P. (1994) Wesley and the People Called Methodists, Nashville: Abingdon Press, ISBN 0-687-01682-7
Hempton, David (2005) Methodism: Empire of the Spirit, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10614-9
Hempton, David (1984) Methodism and Politics in British Society, 1750-1850, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-80471-269-7
Kent, John (2002) Wesley and the Wesleyans, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-45532-4
Warner, Wellman J. (1930) The Wesleyan Movement in the Industrial Revolution, London: Longmans, Green, 299 p.
George, Carol V.R. (1973) Segregated Sabbaths: Richard Allen and the Rise of Independent Black Churches, 1760-1840, New York: Oxford University Press, LCCN 73076908
Montgomery, William G. (1993) Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South, 1865-1900, Louisiana State University Press, ISBN 0-80711-745-5
Walker, Clarence E. (1982) A Rock in a Weary Land: The African Methodist Episcopal Church During the Civil War and Reconstruction, Louisiana State University Press, ISBN 0-80710-883-9
Wills, David W. and Newman, Richard (eds.) (1982) Black Apostles at Home and Abroad: Afro-American and the Christian Mission from the Revolution to Reconstruction, Boston, MA: G. K. Hall, ISBN 0-81618-482-8
USA and Canada
Cameron, Richard M. (ed.) (1961) Methodism and Society in Historical Perspective, 4 vol., New York: Abingdon Press
Lyerly, Cynthia Lynn (1998) Methodism and the Southern Mind, 1770-1810, Religion in America Series, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-511429-9
Meyer, Donald (1988) The Protestant Search for Political Realism, 1919-1941, Wesleyan University Press, ISBN 0-81955-203-8
Rawlyk, G.A. (1994) The Canada Fire: Radical Evangelicalism in British North America, 1775-1812, Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, ISBN 0-7735-1221-7
Schmidt, Jean Miller (1999) Grace Sufficient: A History of Women in American Methodism, 1760-1939, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press ISBN 0-687-15675-0
Semple, Neil (1996) The Lord's Dominion: The History of Canadian Methodism, Buffalo: McGill-Queen's University Press, ISBN 0-7735-1367-1
Sweet, William Warren (1954) Methodism in American History, Revision of 1953, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 472 p.
Wigger, John H. (1998) Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-510452-8 – p. ix & 269 focus on 1770-1910
Primary sources
Richey, Russell E., Rowe, Kenneth E. and Schmidt, Jean Miller (eds.) (2000) The Methodist Experience in America: a sourcebook, Nashville: Abingdon Press, ISBN 0-687-24673-3 – 756 p. of original documents
Sweet, William Warren (ed.) (1946) Religion on the American Frontier: Vol. 4, The Methodists,1783-1840: A Collection of Source Materials, New York: H. Holt & Co., – 800 p. of documents regarding the American frontier
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