Blake and the Methodists

Blake and the Methodists
Author: M. Farrell
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 270
Release: 2014-09-25
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1137455500

Exploring the work of William Blake within the context of Methodism – the largest 'dissenting' religious group during his lifetime – this book contributes to ongoing critical debates surrounding Blake's religious affinities by suggesting that, contrary to previous thinking, Blake held sympathies with certain aspects of Methodism.

Blake and the Methodists

Blake and the Methodists
Author: M. Farrell
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 298
Release: 2014-09-25
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1137455500

Exploring the work of William Blake within the context of Methodism – the largest 'dissenting' religious group during his lifetime – this book contributes to ongoing critical debates surrounding Blake's religious affinities by suggesting that, contrary to previous thinking, Blake held sympathies with certain aspects of Methodism.

William Blake's Religious Vision

William Blake's Religious Vision
Author: Jennifer G. Jesse
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2013
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0739177907

In this innovative study, Jesse challenges the prevailing view of Blake as an antinomian and describes him as a theological moderate who defended an evangelical faith akin to the Methodism of John Wesley. She arrives at this conclusion by contextualizing Blake's works not only within Methodism, but in relation to other religious groups he addressed in his art, including the Established Church, deism, and radical religions. Further, she analyzes his works by sorting out the theological "road signs" he directed to each audience. This approach reveals Blake engaging each faction through its most prized beliefs, manipulating its own doctrines through visual and verbal guide-posts designed to communicate specifically with that group. She argues that, once we collate Blake's messages to his intended audiences--sounding radical to the conservatives and conservative to the radicals--we find him advocating a system that would have been recognized by his contemporaries as Wesleyan in orientation. This thesis also relies on an accurate understanding of eighteenth-century Methodism: Jesse underscores the empirical rationalism pervading Wesley's theology, highlighting differences between Methodism as practiced and as publicly caricatured. Undergirding this project is Jesse's call for more rigorous attention to the dramatic character of Blake's works. She notes that scholars still typically use phrases like "Blake says" or "Blake believes," followed by some claim made by a Blakean character, without negotiating the complex narrative dynamics that might enable us to understand the rhetorical purposes of that statement, as heard by Blake's respective audiences. Jesse maintains we must expect to find reflections in Blake's works of all the theologies he engaged. The question is: what was he doing with them, and why? In order to divine what Blake meant to communicate, we must explore how those he targeted would have perceived his arguments. Jesse concludes that by analyzing the dramatic character of Blake's works theologically through this wide-angled, audience-oriented approach, we see him orchestrating a grand rapprochement of the extreme theologies of his day into a unified vision that integrates faith and reason.

William Blake's Religious Vision

William Blake's Religious Vision
Author: Jennifer Jesse
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2013-02-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0739177915

In this innovative study, Jesse challenges the prevailing view of Blake as an antinomian and describes him as a theological moderate who defended an evangelical faith akin to the Methodism of John Wesley. She arrives at this conclusion by contextualizing Blake’s works not only within Methodism, but in relation to other religious groups he addressed in his art, including the Established Church, deism, and radical religions. Further, she analyzes his works by sorting out the theological “road signs” he directed to each audience. This approach reveals Blake engaging each faction through its most prized beliefs, manipulating its own doctrines through visual and verbal guide-posts designed to communicate specifically with that group. She argues that, once we collate Blake’s messages to his intended audiences—sounding radical to the conservatives and conservative to the radicals—we find him advocating a system that would have been recognized by his contemporaries as Wesleyan in orientation. This thesis also relies on an accurate understanding of eighteenth-century Methodism: Jesse underscores the empirical rationalism pervading Wesley’s theology, highlighting differences between Methodism as practiced and as publicly caricatured. Undergirding this project is Jesse’s call for more rigorous attention to the dramatic character of Blake’s works. She notes that scholars still typically use phrases like “Blake says” or “Blake believes,” followed by some claim made by a Blakean character, without negotiating the complex narrative dynamics that might enable us to understand the rhetorical purposes of that statement, as heard by Blake’s respective audiences. Jesse maintains we must expect to find reflections in Blake’s works of all the theologies he engaged. The question is: what was he doing with them, and why? In order to divine what Blake meant to communicate, we must explore how those he targeted would have perceived his arguments. Jesse concludes that by analyzing the dramatic character of Blake’s works theologically through this wide-angled, audience-oriented approach, we see him orchestrating a grand rapprochement of the extreme theologies of his day into a unified vision that integrates faith and reason.

Mission Possible 3+

Mission Possible 3+
Author: Kay Kotan
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2021-07
Genre:
ISBN: 9781950899289

Mission Possible, by Kay Kotan and Blake Bradford, has been taken to a new level. In Mission Possible 3+, Kay Kotan and Blake Bradford have re-written and updated their best-selling resource for local churches to better assist congregations seeking to use the simplified accountable leadership structure, often called the one-board model. This expanded third edition includes new resources, activities, and checklists In Mission Possible 3+, Kay and Blake focus on ministry while making meetings fewer in number but larger in meaning. In this book aimed at congregational leaders, particularly United Methodists, the authors provide practical, field-tested steps to simplify your church structure and unleash more people into ministry. Too often churches try to simplify their structures by just having fewer people at the meeting table. But real simplification and accountable leadership means that meetings - and leaders - are transformed. Kay and Blake walk you through both the technical and adaptive changes to simplify your structure for missional effectiveness. Mission Possible 3+ includes more than 50 pages of additional resources, making the transition to a simplified structure even more straightforward.

William Blake and Religion

William Blake and Religion
Author: Magnus Ankarsjö
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2014-11-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0786455489

Over the last ten years the field of Blake studies has profited from new discoveries about Blake's life and work. This book examines the effect that Blake's mother's recently discovered Moravianism has had on our understanding of his poetry, and gives special attention to Moravianism and Swedenborgianism and their relation to his sexual politics. This is accomplished by a close reading of Blake's poetry, which examines in detail the subjects of religion, sex, and the attempted colonization of Africa by a Swedenborgian utopian group.

Impact!

Impact!
Author: Kay Kotan
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2018-03-28
Genre:
ISBN: 9780998754697

The church likely rises and falls with the missional investment of the laity. So, of course, this book is for the laity. But, this book, but it is also for pastors and judicatory leaders. Our hope for this resource is to rekindle the spark and set the laity on fire - ¿on fire for Christ. Our tribe, the United Methodist Church, was founded as a movement of laity and reached millions of people. Our hope and prayer is that this resource will help re-engage and empower the laity.