Methodism Mocked

Methodism Mocked PDF Author: Albert M. Lyles
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498207529
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
In these days, when satire is a fashionable form of rhetoric, no book could make more fascinating reading than this. By comparison with the satire revealed in this book, the modern variety seems pale and mild. Methodism Mocked examines the hostile literary reaction expressed in satire to Methodism and the Methodist leaders, John Wesley and George Whitefield, in the eighteenth century. It considers the basis for satiric attacks on such Methodist practices as field preaching and hymn-singing and on the theological doctrines emphasized by the Methodists, particularly justification by faith and perfection. By considering the attacks on Methodism in terms of eighteenth-century religious thought and literary practice, Methodism Mocked makes comprehensible a reaction long considered as only spiteful and malicious.

Methodism Mocked

Methodism Mocked PDF Author: Albert M. Lyles
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1498207529
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 203

Get Book Here

Book Description
In these days, when satire is a fashionable form of rhetoric, no book could make more fascinating reading than this. By comparison with the satire revealed in this book, the modern variety seems pale and mild. Methodism Mocked examines the hostile literary reaction expressed in satire to Methodism and the Methodist leaders, John Wesley and George Whitefield, in the eighteenth century. It considers the basis for satiric attacks on such Methodist practices as field preaching and hymn-singing and on the theological doctrines emphasized by the Methodists, particularly justification by faith and perfection. By considering the attacks on Methodism in terms of eighteenth-century religious thought and literary practice, Methodism Mocked makes comprehensible a reaction long considered as only spiteful and malicious.

Methodism and the Rise of Popular Literary Criticism

Methodism and the Rise of Popular Literary Criticism PDF Author: Brett McInelly
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000888452
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
This book examines how Methodism and popular review criticism intersected with and informed each other in the eighteenth century. Methodism emerged at a time when the idea of a ‘public square’ was taking shape, a process facilitated by the periodical press. Perhaps more so than any previous religious movement, Methodism, and the publications associated with it, received greater scrutiny largely because of periodical literature and the emergence of popular review criticism. The book considers in particular how works addressing Methodism were discussed and critiqued in the era’s two leading literary periodicals – The Monthly Review and The Critical Review. Focusing on the period between 1749 and 1789, the study encompasses the formative years of popular review criticism and some of the more dramatic moments in the textual culture of early Methodism. The author illustrates some of the specific ways these review journals diverged in their critical approaches and sensibilities as well as their politics and religious opinions. The Monthly’s and the Critical’s responses to the Methodists’ own publishing efforts as well as the anti-Methodist critique are shown to be both multifaceted and complex. The book critically reflects on the pretended neutrality, reasonableness, and objectivity of reviewers, who at times found themselves negotiating between the desire to regulate literary tastes and the impulse to undermine the Methodist revival. It will be relevant to scholars of religion, history and literary studies with an interest in Methodism, print culture, and the eighteenth century.

Textual Warfare and the Making of Methodism

Textual Warfare and the Making of Methodism PDF Author: Brett C. McInelly
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191019127
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Textual Warfare and the Making of Methodism argues that the eighteenth-century Methodist revival participated in and was produced by a rich textual culture that includes both pro- and anti-Methodist texts; and that Methodism be understood and approached as a rhetorical problem-as a point of contestation and debate resolved through discourse. Methodist belief and practice attracted its share of negative press, and Methodists eagerly (and publically) responded to their critics; and the controversy generated by the revival ensured that Methodism would be conditioned by textual and rhetorical processes, whether in published polemic and apologia, or in private diaries and letters as Methodists navigated the complexities of their spiritual lives and anti-Methodist efforts to undermine their faith. While it may seem obvious to conclude that a controversial movement would be shaped by controversy, Textual Warfare examines the specific ways Methodist belief, practice, and self-understanding were filtered through the anti-Methodist critique; the particular historic and cultural conditions that informed this process; and the overwhelming extent to which Methodism in the eighteenth century was mediated by texts and rhetorical exchange. The proliferation of print media and the relative freedom of the press in the eighteenth century; the extent to which society generally and Methodism specifically promoted literacy; and a cultural sensibility predisposed to open debate on matters of public interest, ensured the development of a public sphere in which individuals came together to deliberate, in conversation and in print, on a range of issues relevant to the larger community. It was within this sphere that Methodist religiosity, including the intensely private nature of spiritual conversion, became matters of civic concern on an unprecedented scale and that Methodism ultimately took its form.

The Limits of a Catholic Spirit

The Limits of a Catholic Spirit PDF Author: Kelly Diehl Yates
Publisher: Lutterworth Press
ISBN: 0718896599
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
The Limits of a Catholic Spirit presents an extraordinary, in-depth study of John Wesley's relationship with Catholicism, examining the limits to which Wesley, as an evangelical Protestant, practiced his ideal of a Catholic spirit. Through the use of rare primary sources from the National Archives, Kelly Diehl Yates provides a refreshing investigation of Wesley's interaction and strained relationship with Catholicism, taking the path less trodden in studies of his theology. While revisionist scholars argue that Wesley proposed principles of religious tolerance in his sermon, Catholic Spirit, Yates argues that he did not expect unity between Protestants and Catholics, remaining wedded to anti-Catholic beliefs himself. By paying attention to this previously unfilled gap in Wesley studies, Yates' exemplary historical and critical study tackles questions which have beset Wesley scholars for decades, including Wesley's relationship with the Jesuits, Jacobitism, the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780, and his time in Ireland. Grounded in historical case studies, Yates explores these questions from a fresh perspective, providing answers to these questions, and more.

George Whitefield

George Whitefield PDF Author: Geordan Hammond
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198747071
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
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.

Authority and Order

Authority and Order PDF Author: Adrian Burdon
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351956590
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
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 Spiritual Lives and Manuscript Cultures of Eighteenth-Century English Women

The Spiritual Lives and Manuscript Cultures of Eighteenth-Century English Women PDF Author: Cynthia Aalders
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198872305
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
The Spiritual Lives and Manuscript Cultures of Eighteenth-Century English Women explores the vital and unexplored ways in which women's life writings acted to undergird, guide, and indeed shape religious communities. Through an exploration of various significant but understudied personal relationships- including mentorship by older women, spiritual friendship, and care for nonbiological children-the book demonstrates the multiple ways in which women were active in writing religious communities. The women discussed here belonged to communities that habitually communicated through personal writing. At the same time, their acts of writing were creative acts, powerful to build and shape religious communities: these women wrote religious community. The book consists of a series of interweaving case studies and focuses on Catherine Talbot (1721-70), Anne Steele (1717-78), and Ann Bolton (1743-1822), and on their literary interactions with friends and family. Considered together, these subjects and sources allow comparison across denomination, for Talbot was Anglican, Steele a Baptist, and Bolton a Methodist. Further, it considers women's life writings as spiritual legacy, as manuscripts were preserved by female friends and family members and continued to function in religious communities after the death of their authors. Various strands of enquiry weave through the book: questions of gender and religion, themselves inflected by denomination; themes related to life writings and manuscript cultures; and the interplay between the writer as individual and her relationships and communal affiliations. The result is a variegated and highly textured account of eighteenth-century women's spiritual and writing lives.

Religion, Gender, and Industry

Religion, Gender, and Industry PDF Author: Geordan Hammond
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1608996425
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
How did the emerging centers of industrial activity interact with the places in which they sprung up? this can be seen in microcosm in one small area of the English midlands: the parish of Madeley, Shropshire, in which was the "birthplace of the industrial revolution," Coalbrookdale. Here, the evangelical Methodist clergyman John Fletcher ministered between 1760 and 1785, among a population including Catholics and Quakers as well people indifferent to religion. Then, for nearly sixty years after his death, two women, Fletcher's widow and later her protâegâe, had virtual charge of the parish, which became one of the last examples of Methodism remaining within the Church of England. Through examining this specific locality, these essays engage particularlywith areas of broader significance, including: Methodism's roots and growth in relation to the Church of England, religion and gender in eighteenth-century Britain, and religion and emerging industrial society. The last decade has seen substantial growthin studies of John and Mary Fletcher, early Methodism, and its relationship to the Church of England. In addition to furthering knowledge of Madeley parish and its relation to larger themes in eighteenth-century Britain, the impact of the Fletchers in nineteenth-century American Methodism is examined.

Controlling Time and Shaping the Self

Controlling Time and Shaping the Self PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004207589
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 559

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Book Description
This book explores new questions and approaches to the rise of autobiographical writing since the early modern period. What motivated more and more men and women to write records of their private life? How could private writing grow into a bestselling genre? How was this rapidly expanding genre influenced by new ideas about history that emerged around 1800? How do we explain the paradox of the apparent privacy of publicity in many autobiographies? Such questions are addressed with reference to well-known autobiographies and an abundance of newfound works by persons hitherto unknown, not only from Europe, but also the Near East, and Japan. This volume features new views of the complex field of historical autobiography studies, and is the first to put the genre in a global perspective.

Timetables of History for Students of Methodism

Timetables of History for Students of Methodism PDF Author: Rex D. Matthews
Publisher: Abingdon Press
ISBN: 1426764596
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
Winner of the 2007 Saddlebag Selection Award from the Historical Society of The United Methodist Church as “the best book published during the year on the history, biography, polity or theology of United Methodism or its predecessors.” Understanding history rests largely on a grasp of two things: sequence and context. Know which events came earlier and which later, and you’ve gone a long way toward understanding influence and causation. Know what was going on in the wider world at the same time a historical event occurred, and you’ll better grasp the meaning and significance of that event for the people who experienced it. Yet even with the best history textbooks students have difficulty in gaining an immediate sense of sequence and context. Hence the purpose of this book: To lay out the most important events in the history of the Wesleyan/Methodist movement, to show them in their proper order, and to include the most important occurrences taking place on the national and international stages at the same time. Matthews presents his material in an easy to comprehend and visually appealing layout, enumerating the major trends and developments in Methodist history from 1700 to 2004. Rex D. Matthews is Assistant Professor in the Practice of Historical Theology at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. He currently serves as co-chair of the Wesleyan Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion, as General Editor of the Kingswood Books series, and as Managing Editor of the new electronic academic journal Methodist Review. An excerpt from the Circuit Rider review: "This is a book for college and seminary professors, for high school teachers of religion, for Sunday School teachers of children, youth and adults. It is a book for preachers and church musicians. It should be in every church library. This is a book for people who think history is boring as well as for those who delight in rich historical detail and story. It is a book to be savored and returned to again and again. And this is a book for all who love the church and yearn to be part of perfecting its mission and its life." (Click here to read the entire review.)