Difference between revisions of "United Methodist Church"

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* Tucker, Karen B. Westerfield. ''American Methodist Worship'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/American-Methodist-Worship-Religion-America/dp/019512698X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228197909&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
 
* Tucker, Karen B. Westerfield. ''American Methodist Worship'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/American-Methodist-Worship-Religion-America/dp/019512698X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228197909&sr=8-1 excerpt and text search]
 
* Wigger, John H. ''Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America'', (1998) 269pp;  focus on 1770-1910
 
* Wigger, John H. ''Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America'', (1998) 269pp;  focus on 1770-1910
* Wigger, John H., and Nathan Hatch, eds. ''Methodism and the Shaping of American Culture'' (2001), essays by scholars
+
* Wigger, John H.. and Nathan O. Hatch, eds. ''Methodism and the Shaping of American Culture'' (2001) [http://www.amazon.com/Methodism-Shaping-American-Culture-Wigger/dp/0687048540/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195465108&sr=1-2 excerpt and text search], essays by scholars
* Wigger, John H. ''Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America'' (1998)
+
* Wigger, John H. ''Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America'' (1998) [http://www.amazon.com/Taking-Heaven-Storm-Methodism-Christianity/dp/0252069943/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228379123&sr=8-2 excerpt and text search]
  
 
=== African Americans ===
 
=== African Americans ===
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* Montgomery, William G. ''Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South, 1865-1900'', (1993) * Walker, Clarence E. ''A Rock in a Weary Land: The African Methodist Episcopal Church During the Civil War and Reconstruction'', (1982)  
 
* Montgomery, William G. ''Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South, 1865-1900'', (1993) * Walker, Clarence E. ''A Rock in a Weary Land: The African Methodist Episcopal Church During the Civil War and Reconstruction'', (1982)  
 
* Wills, David W. and Newman, Richard, eds. ''Black Apostles at Home and Abroad: Afro-American and the Christian Mission from the Revolution to Reconstruction'', (1982)  
 
* Wills, David W. and Newman, Richard, eds. ''Black Apostles at Home and Abroad: Afro-American and the Christian Mission from the Revolution to Reconstruction'', (1982)  
 
  
 
=== Primary sources ===
 
=== Primary sources ===
 
* Richey, Russell E., Rowe, Kenneth E. and Schmidt, Jean Miller (eds.) ''The Methodist Experience in America: a sourcebook'', (2000) ISBN 0-687-24673-3 – 756 p. of original documents
 
* Richey, Russell E., Rowe, Kenneth E. and Schmidt, Jean Miller (eds.) ''The Methodist Experience in America: a sourcebook'', (2000) ISBN 0-687-24673-3 – 756 p. of original documents
* Sweet, William Warren (ed.) ''Religion on the American Frontier: Vol. 4, The Methodists,1783-1840: A Collection of Source Materials'', (1946) 800 p. of documents regarding the American frontier
+
* Sweet, W. W., ed. ''Religion on the American Frontier. Vol. IV, 1783-1840: The Methodists, A Collection of Source Materials'' (1964) [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0043-5597(194710)3:4:4%3C542:ROTAF1%3E2.0.CO;2-P online review] 800pp of documents  
 +
 
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
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[[Category:Methodism]]
 
[[Category:Methodism]]
 
[[Category:Christian Denominations]]
 
[[Category:Christian Denominations]]
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[[Category:Protestantism]]

Revision as of 08:26, December 4, 2008

The cross and flame emblem is United Methodism's official symbol

The United Methodist Church, (UMC) the largest Methodist denomination, was formed from numerous mergers of American churches dating back to the 18th century. The Methodist Episcopal Church split North and South in 1844 over the slavery issue. They reunited in 1939 (and included the small Methodist Protestant Church) to form the "The Methodist Church (USA)." In 1968 it merged with the historically-German Evangelical United Brethren Church to form the United Methodist Church.

It is a part of the universal church, a worldwide community of all true believers under the Lordship of Christ. The UMC is organized into conferences.

In the United States, it ranks as the second largest Protestant church (8 million and 1.5 million more worldwide).

John Wesley is honored as the founder of Methodism, but his theology was never fully appreciated.

History

The denomination grew rapidly in all parts of the U.S., especially the middle states. Methodism were about 4% of the population from 1830 to 1860; it peaked in 1925 at 6.5%. The decline accelerated after 1960, as more people died than joined. It had approximately equal appeal to blacks and whites,[1] and its missions were relatively successful among the many German and Scandinavian immigrants.

Colonial Era

The First Great Awakening was a series of religious revivals up and down the colonies, beginning in the 1720s. Different denominations took part, but none gained as many members as the newly founded Methodist sect, still considered a part of the Anglican Church.

Missionaries coming from Britain to New England in the mid- and late-18th century faced strong opposition from the established Congregational Church. Methodists held a conception of religion and its relationship to society that was fundamentally at odds with the views of the religious establishment. Beyond a struggle over religious authority, the struggle over Methodism also reveals deep-seated fears of community fragmentation and social disorder in the wake of the American Revolution.[2]

The Methodists grew from a handful of preachers ministering to under 1,000 members when Francis Asbury arrived in America in 1771. At his death in 1816 he led a church with over 700 circuit riders and 200,000 formal members, and perhaps four times as many people who were more loosely-connected adherents.

Second Great Awakening

see also Methodist Episcopal Church, South

US-church-1855.jpg

The Second Great Awakening swept the frontier after 1800 with a series of revivals that made the Methodists the largest American denomination by the 1830s, with churches well distributed in every part of the country, including cities, rural areas and the frontier.

the Circuit Rider

The key to growth was the revival--especially on the frontier but also in towns. Revivals , which brought together hundreds of men, women and children for several days of intense preaching, prayer, singing, soul-searching and socializing. Many became converted, and joined one of the local Methodist churches. Methodists expected revivals aimed at larger audiences to startle hearers into initial religious consciousness; they assumed the critical conversion from self to Christ would occur in private, only then to be followed by integration into the spiritual fellowship of the local, small-group, lay-led society.

Circuit riders proved to be economical and efficient agents to spread Methodism. These itinerant preachers were the first institutionalized response to the call for missionary work in the mid- to late 18th century. Circuit riders tended to be lay preachers who often lacked formal education and were young, poor, and single. Unlike the local preacher, the itinerant circuit rider was a full member of the Methodist annual conference. The circuit riders settled down in the late 19th century and the practice largely disappeared except in remote areas.[3]

1819 frontier revival


Methodism and westward expansion grew simultaneously. Methodists shared similar values with the pioneers: self-reliant individualism, perfectibility, faith in progress, and a belief in Manifest Destiny. Methodism had less success in urban areas during the late 19th century, despite the work of evangelist Sam Jones. Urban workers did not see frontier-like individualism as a means to achieve success in the city. The complexity of urban life could not be addressed by the older ideals.[4]

The Methodists developed distinctive religious and liturgical practices regarding regular" Sunday worship, various "special services" in the Methodist tradition (especially the "Love Feast", the "Watch Night Service", and the Quarterly Meeting), with adaptations of liturgies and practices related to sacraments and rites of passage, a lesser emphasis on the role of music, considerable emphasis on private and familial devotions, and a church architecture suitable for its budget and its style of worship.[5]


Women

Schneider (1993) stresses the Victorian domestic ideology adopted by the Methodist women. That is, they made the ideology that defined women as "naturally" religious and sanctified the middle-class home a central part of their identity and practice. Methodism stood opposed to the intensely masculine "culture of honor" (with its deadly duels) that had previsously been rampant.

While all the ministers were men, most of the members were women. Working beside her father, Helenor Alter Davisson was a circuit rider of the Methodist Protestant Church in Jasper County, Indiana. She was ordained a minister in 1866, becoming the first female ordained in Methodism. Subsequent church conferences challenged the ordination of women. Illness confined her to her room by 1870, and she died there in 1876.[6]

German Americans

Missions to the Germans in the U.S. added numerous members. Rev Wilhelm Nast, a German immigrant, was the main force in building the Methodist Church among other German-speaking immigrants during the 1830s-1880s. Nast emphasized the connection of Methodism to Reformed Lutheran theology, demonstrating the commonality of the essentials of salvation. He did go beyond Luther, in the Methodist tradition emphasizing sanctification. In 1844 he returned to Germany to explore the possibilities of evangelism and determined that the Methodists needed a permanent presence instead of relying on connections with revival movements. A formal missionary movement by the German Methodist Church began in Germany in 1849. In part this missionary movement was built on Nast's ability to make Methodism appealing to Germans from diverse denominations and his guidance to pastors on continuities and discontinuities of Methodism with continental theologies.[7]

Moral supervision

N-meth-1850.jpg

The Methodists closely monitored the actual behavior of all their members through the "class meeting" every week. Typically twelve members met once a week to monitor how they were growing in inward spiritual experience. Their goal was to achieve "a mortifying self-knowledge" and "to replace a sense of the sporadic surveillance of the neighborhood with a sense of the omniscient eye of God"[8]. This intense introspection was critical in moving from a traditional personality that feared external shame to a modern personality that was driven by guilt.

By the second half of the 19th century, the class meetings were forgotten and Methodist leaders viewed the novel as a threat to morals. Novels competed with religion for an audience and provided bad examples that could lead the impressionable reader to a life of crime or might distract the reader from contributing to the formation of a just society. Ministers had the duty of directing readers to more edifying literature by acting as book critics. They might also serve as book agents by selling uplifting books, such as those published by the Methodist Book Concern. In the early 20th century, some Methodist scholars came to believe that novels were necessary for faith: reading quality fiction enabled one to discover commendable values and learn how to engage the world. Radio and film would supersede the threat posed by the novel.[9]

decline and fall caused by drink; 1840s

The Methodists aggressively campaigned against liquor before the Civil War turned their attention to slavery. From the 1870s to the 1920s the Prohibition movement enlisted enormous energy from dry ministers and laypeople, especially women.

Modernizing the Methodists

Methodism was transformed in the mid-th century from a religion of poor people to one of middle class respectability. Enthusiastic groups, clustered in the Holiness Movement, broke away. The transformation is shown by the the change in roles of the presiding elder from 1792 through 1908, when the elder was redesignated district superintendent. No longer was the elder supposed to be an inspirational leader; now he was the business and administrative officer. The success of Methodism led to the formation of larger districts, and the number of administrative and managerial responsibilities of the local leaders increased dramatically.[10]

The transformation of Methodism in the 19th century from a religion of the 'unwashed' and uneducated to a denomination of respectability owed much to the denomination's embrace of education. Many of the frontier preachers in the Midwest prized education. Though late in supporting higher education, Methodists, by the mid-19th century, had established more colleges than all but one other denomination. Belief in the efficacy of Christian education for children also contributed to the prominence of education in Methodism.[11]


The collapse of the institution of weekly class meetings in local churches in the late 19th century likewise shows how modernization worked. Class meetings, with a deep examination of the personal (mis)behavior of every member, were central to the frontier stage, but were phased out as Methodists moved to the city. The poor farmers who comprised early Methodism modernized themselves, moved to town, and used the moral standards and interpersonal skills they learned in church to make themselves middle class. Tensions over status arose, particularly when class members outranked their leaders in terms of wealth, education and social standing. Perhaps a mutual quest for perfection could have overcome this tension, but theological change, which emphasized the conversion experience as being absolute rather than a step on the road to perfection, eroded social bonds and lessened the importance of the class meeting. Methodism came to be perceived as a denomination with a major social role in uplifting the community, to the detriment of the class meeting. Expulsion from the meeting now meant excommunication from the church, a punishment that seemed unduly harsh. The worship service displaced the class meeting as the clergy became settled.[12]

Uplifting the youth

As Methodism sought upwars social respectability in the mid 19th century, churches replaced the primitive emotionalism of camp meeting conversions with a more genteel, intellectual process that led incrementally to conversion. Children's literature published by the Sunday School Union taught the more respectable process of conversion, often through narratives of the lives - and deaths - of children. The Methodists were thus moving away from revivals and toward the notion of "Christian Nurture" (originally epxlored by Congregationalist Horace Bushnell) that showed that children were the future.[13]

The Epworth League was established as a lay organization intended to keep adolescent boys in the church. While the Epworth League was ostensibly open to both men and women, its real aim was to masculinize a church that was perceived to be dominated by a female membership and female-led organizations. Christie (2006) explores when and how this construction of youthful piety became embedded within Methodism and the impact it had on the shape of church governance. Christie argues that social Christianity, which gained a foothold through the mechanism of the league, was an essentially male-gendered discourse.[14]

Politics

Francis Asbury (1745-1816), one of the first Methodist bishops in America, had decreed that 'Our kingdom is not of this world,' but his views had been replaced on the eve of the Civil War with the notion that Methodists must participate wholeheartedly in the political process for the sake of the nation. Methodism played a part in developing sectional alienation in the years preceding the outbreak of the Civil War, as shown by the schism of 1844, when the Methodist Episcopal Church, South split away on the issue of allowing as bishop to own slaves. Voting studies indicate that before the Civil War the Methodists voted Democratic by small margins; by 1870 they were the core of the Republican Party and remain so to this day.[15] The victory of Lincoln and the Republican Party in the election of 1860 was heralded by many Methodists as the arrival of the kingdom of God in America. That victory realized a multiple vision: freedom for slaves, freedom from the terror unleashed on godly abolitionists in border states, release from the slave power's diabolical grip on church and state, and a new direction for the Union.[16]

Holiness Movement

The Holiness movement rejected the middle class formalities of the mainline Methodists and sought an authentic religious experience. The leader was Phoebe Palmer (1807-1874), the most influential Methodist woman of her generation. After her death her followers broke away from the Methodists and set up their own Holiness and Pentecostal churches. Palmer's theology produced a laicized ministry and offered both parents and children of the second and third generations of believers a formula to gain assurance of total sanctification as a gift from God. Her "Altar Covenant" linked Scripture, sacred song, and physical setting to form the way to full redemption. The altar in Holiness became the focal point of worship, in accordance with Palmer's beliefs.[17]

Changing theology

Wesley's American followers did not consider him a theologian. Initial inattention to Wesley's theology stemmed in part from the American Revolution and the desire to separate from British antecedents. Furthermore American bishop Francis Asbury lacked any formal theological education and had little interest in theology. The typical early circuit-riding preachers did not share Wesley's belief in the need to be grounded in classic theological texts, and they often claimed believers needed to rely on scripture alone to interpret true religion. Apologetics for Methodist beliefs on grace and sanctification received more attention than did the corpus of Wesley's theology. Churchmen concluded that Wesley did not have a clearly articulated and systematic theology because he had nothing comparable to John Calvin's Institutes and because his theology on some issues changed over time. Methodists ministers saw their theology as part of the larger Arminian tradition, which allowed for everyone to get to heaven. As seminaries to train Methodist preachers emerged, the curriculum marginalized the study of Wesley's theology.[18]

After 1880, Methodist theologians in the United States started to question and reinterpret his doctrines. Scholarship turned away from the inerrancy and infallibility of scripture that Wesley advocated and critics challenged his ideas about original sin and Christology. Theological liberalism found favor, as the new theology responded to rationalism, philosophical idealism, and improved biblical scholarship. Unlike many other denominations, Methodism did not experience theological warfare between proponents of liberal theology and their fundamentalist counterparts. Perhaps the most influential theologian was Borden Parker Bowne (1847-1910), profesor at Bston University. He was the first systematizer of American Personalism, arguing that a personal God was the cause of all things and the solution to all problms. Personalism was empirical in that self-experience was at its core. Bowne was known as the 'Socrates of the Methodist Church' for his criticisms of the church, especially its episcopal organization.[19]

In the 20th century, Wesley's theology received even more critical analysis. Though some sought to demonstrate how Wesley's theology applied to modern issues, his theology, as he expressed it, had little following. However, a conservative response did develop among some Methodists that remained true to religious orthodoxy and offered reasoned critiques of liberal doctrines. In the late 20th century, Methodist theologians rediscovered Wesley as they became intrigued by contemporary intellectual developments and sought to reform theology to embrace them. They used Wesley's writings selectively to show how he was connected to modern movements. [20]

Missions

Methodist Conferences & missions in 1904

Korea

Methodist missionary and physician William Scranton established the first Methodist hospital, later named Si Pyung Won, in Seoul, Korea, in 1885. Meta Howard arrived in 1887 and established Po Kyu Nyo Koan, a woman's hospital in Seoul. Other Methodist medical missions followed. Rosetta Sherwood Hall opened Baldwin Dispensary in 1893, which became the Lillian Harris Memorial Hospital, the major hospital for women, in Seoul. Hall moved in 1894 to the medical mission at Pyeng Yang established by her husband, William J. Hall. She subsequently expanded that facility to become the women's hospital Kwang He Nyo Won. The medical mission was the main reason for the rapid growth of Korean Methodism.[21]

Current Political Views

The United Methodist Church believes that all economic and political systems are ultimately under the rule of God. They agree that the role of government is to protect its citizen's freedom and guarantee the rights of its people to adequate food, clothing and education. They stress that the world's wealth should be shared so that no person is in economic distress. [22] However, the members of the United Methodist Church are quite diverse politically. For example, both Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton [23] and Republican President George W. Bush [24] are members of the church.

Death Penalty

The United Methodist Church is officially opposed to capital punishment and urges its elimination in the world. The church became first officially opposed to the death penalty at its 1956 General Conference in Minneapolis. They believe that "all human life is sacred and created by God" and that the death penalty limits the possibility of reconciliation with Jesus Christ [25]

War

John Wesley determined that war was the result of sin. Self-defense could justify the use of violence, but he generally held that Christian perfection required believers to show love and mercy to their oppressors. Wesley also thought that state power came from God, so subjects owed obedience to rulers. Therefore, Wesley believed that the American Revolution was, in effect, an effort to usurp God's power rightly invested in Britain's King George III. Some Methodists in the colonies heeded Wesley's calls for obedience to authority and pacifism, but many joined the Patriot cause because of loyalty to their region, colony, or hometown.[26]

Today the United Methodist Church believes that war is incompatible with Christianity. It urges that war be used only as a last resort. [27]

Regarding war, the Social Principles state:

We believe war is incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ. We therefore reject war as a usual instrument of national foreign policy and insist that the first moral duty of all nations is to resolve by peaceful means every dispute that arises between or among them; that human values must outweigh military claims as governments determine their priorities; that the militarization of society must be challenged and stopped; that the manufacture, sale, and deployment of armaments must be reduced and controlled; and that the production, possession, or use of nuclear weapons be condemned. Consequently, we endorse general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control.

See also

Church.jpg

Bibliography

  • Andrews, Dee E. The Methodists and Revolutionary America, 1760-1800: The Shaping of an Evangelical Culture. (2000) 367 pp.; stress on cities
  • Cameron, Richard M., ed. Methodism and Society in Historical Perspective, 4 vol., (1961)
  • Clark, Robert D. The Life of Matthew Simpson (1956), leading bishop of the Civil War era
  • Harmon, Nolan B., ed. The Encyclopedia of World Methodism, (1974) ISBN 0-687-11784-4.
  • Hatch, Nathan O. The Democratization of American Christianity (1989) credits the Methodists and Baptists for making Americans more equalitarian
  • Hempton, David. Methodism: Empire of the Spirit, (2005) ISBN 0-300-10614-9, major new interpretive history. Hempton concludes that Methodism was an international missionary movement of great spiritual power and organizational capacity; it energized people of all conditions and backgrounds; it was fueled by preachers who made severe sacrifices to bring souls to Christ; it grew with unprecedented speed, especially in America; it then sailed too complacently into the twentieth century.
  • Lyerly, Cynthia Lynn. Methodism and the Southern Mind, 1770-1810 (1998). intellectual history
  • Mathews, Donald G. Slavery and Methodism: A Chapter in American Morality, 1780-1845 (1965);
  • Meyer, Donald. The Protestant Search for Political Realism, 1919-1941, (1988) in ACLS e-books
  • Rawlyk, G.A. The Canada Fire: Radical Evangelicalism in British North America, 1775-1812 (1994)
  • Richey, Russell E. et al. eds. United Methodism and American Culture. Vol. 1, Ecclesiology, Mission and Identity (1997); Vol. 2. The People(s) Called Methodist: Forms and Reforms of Their Life (1998); Vol. 3. Doctrines and Discipline (1999); Vol. 4, Questions for the Twenty-First Century Church. (1999), historical essays by scholars; focus on 20th century
  • Richey, Russell E. Early American Methodism (1991)
  • Richey, Russell E. and Kenneth E. Rowe, eds. Rethinking Methodist History: A Bicentennial Historical Consultation (1985), historiographical essays by scholars
  • Schmidt, Jean Miller Grace Sufficient: A History of Women in American Methodism, 1760-1939, (1999)
  • Schneider, A. Gregory. The Way of the Cross Leads Home: The Domestication of American Methodism (1993)
  • Semple, Neil The Lord's Dominion: The History of Canadian Methodism (1996) 565pp
  • Sweet, William Warren Methodism in American History, (1954) 472 p.
  • Tucker, Karen B. Westerfield. American Methodist Worship (2001) excerpt and text search
  • Wigger, John H. Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America, (1998) 269pp; focus on 1770-1910
  • Wigger, John H.. and Nathan O. Hatch, eds. Methodism and the Shaping of American Culture (2001) excerpt and text search, essays by scholars
  • Wigger, John H. Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America (1998) excerpt and text search

African Americans

  • Campbell, James T. Songs of Zion: The African Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States and South Africa], (1995) ACLS e-book
  • George, Carol V.R. Segregated Sabbaths: Richard Allen and the Rise of Independent Black Churches, 1760-1840, (1973)
  • Montgomery, William G. Under Their Own Vine and Fig Tree: The African-American Church in the South, 1865-1900, (1993) * Walker, Clarence E. A Rock in a Weary Land: The African Methodist Episcopal Church During the Civil War and Reconstruction, (1982)
  • Wills, David W. and Newman, Richard, eds. Black Apostles at Home and Abroad: Afro-American and the Christian Mission from the Revolution to Reconstruction, (1982)

Primary sources

  • Richey, Russell E., Rowe, Kenneth E. and Schmidt, Jean Miller (eds.) The Methodist Experience in America: a sourcebook, (2000) ISBN 0-687-24673-3 – 756 p. of original documents
  • Sweet, W. W., ed. Religion on the American Frontier. Vol. IV, 1783-1840: The Methodists, A Collection of Source Materials (1964) online review 800pp of documents


References

  1. Most of the blacks belong to the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, but there are large numbers affiliated with the United Methodist Church as well.
  2. Eric Baldwin, "'The Devil Begins to Roar': Opposition to Early Methodists in New England." Church History 2006 75(1): 94-119
  3. Peter Feinman, "Itinerant Circuit-riding Minister: Warrior of Light in a Wilderness of Chaos." Methodist History 2006 45(1): 43-53
  4. Eric R. Crouse, "Methodist Encounters: Confronting the Western and Urban Frontiers of 19th-century America." Methodist History 2002 40(3): 157-167
  5. Tucker (2001)
  6. Christopher M. Shoemaker, "A Small Work: the Story of Helenor Alter Davisson, Methodism's First Ordained Woman." Methodist History 2003 41(2): 3-11
  7. W. Harrison Daniel, "Wilhelm Nast (1807-1899): Founder of German-speaking Methodism in America and Architect of the Methodist Episcopal Church Mission in Europe," Methodist History 2001 39(3): 154-166
  8. Schneider (1993) pp. 82, 115
  9. Matthew T. Herbst, "'The Moral Hurt of Novel Reading': Methodism and American Fiction, 1865-1914." Methodist History 2006 44(4): 239-250
  10. J. Dennis Williams, "From Presiding Elder to District Superintendent: the Development of an Office in Episcopal Methodism from 1792 to 1908," Methodist History 2002 40(4): 255-265
  11. Douglas Montagna, "Education and the Refinement of 19th-century Methodism in the Midwest" Methodist History 2006 44(2): 94-104
  12. Charles Edward Whites, "The Decline of the Class Meeting," Methodist History 2002 40(4): 207-215
  13. David Sokol, "Portrayals of Childhood and Race in Sunday School Conversion Narratives, 1827-1852," Methodist History 2001 40(1): 3-16
  14. Nancy Christie, "Young Men and the Creation of Civic Christianity in Urban Methodist Churches, 1880-1914" Canadian Historical Association Journal 2006 17: 79-105
  15. Paul Kleppner, The Third Electoral System, 1853-1892: Parties, Voters, and Political Cultures (1979) online in Questia
  16. Richard Carwardine, "Methodists, Politics, and the Coming of the American Civil War," Church History 2000 69(3): 578-609
  17. Charles Edwin Jones, "The Posthumous Pilgrimage of Phoebe Palmer," Methodist History 1997 35(4): 203-213; Charles Edward White, The Beauty of Holiness: Phoebe Palmer as Theologian, Revivalist, Feminist, and Humanitarian (1986).
  18. Randy L. Maddox, "Respected Founder/neglected Guide: the Role of Wesley in American Methodist Theology," Methodist History 1999 37(2): 71-88
  19. Rufus Burrow, Jr., "Borden Parker Bowne: the First Thoroughgoing Personalist," Methodist History 1997 36(1): 44-54
  20. H. O. (Tom) Thomas, "Whenceforth Wesley: John Wesley's Theology from Then to Now." Methodist History 2005 43(4): 258-272; Glen Spann, "Theological Transition Within Methodism: the Rise of Liberalism and the Conservative Response," Methodist History 2005 43(3): 198-212
  21. Gunshik Shim, "Methodist Medical Mission in Korea" Methodist History 2007 46(1): 34-46
  22. http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.1713687/k.1AAB/MethoPedia.htm
  23. http://pewforum.org/religion08/profile.php?CandidateID=2
  24. http://www.adherents.com/people/pb/George_W_Bush.html
  25. http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.2248845/k.5F14/Death_Penalty_Overview.htm
  26. Jessie Shuman Larkins, "John Wesley among the Colonies: Wesleyan Theology in the Face of the American Revolution." Methodist History 2007 45(4): 232-243
  27. http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.1696621/k.8834/War_Overview.htm

External links