Methodism and American Empire

Methodism and American Empire
Author: David William Scott
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2024-01-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1791030645

Living into a less colonial way of being together. Methodism and American Empire investigates historical trajectories and theological developments that connect American imperialism since World War II to the Methodist tradition as a global movement. The volume asks: to what extent is United Methodists’ vision of the globe marred by American imperialism? Through historical analyses and theological reflections, this volume chronicles the formation of an understanding of The United Methodist Church since the mid-20th century that is both global and at the same time dominated by American interests and concerns. Methodism and American Empire provides a historical and theological perspective to understand the current context of The United Methodist Church while also raising ecclesiological questions about the impact of imperialism on how Methodists have understood the nature and mission of the church over the last century. Gathering voices and perspectives from around the world, this volume suggests that the project of global Methodism and the tensions one witnesses therein ought to be understood in the context of American imperialism and that such an understanding is critical to the task of continuing to be a global denomination. The volume tells a tale of complex negotiations happening between United Methodists across different national, cultural, and ecclesial contexts and sets up the historical backdrop for the imminent schism of The United Methodist Church.

Methodism

Methodism
Author: David Hempton
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2005-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300106149

Hempton explores the rise of Methodism from its unpromising origins as a religious society within the Church of England in the 1730s to a major international religious movement by the 1880s.

Sacred Capital

Sacred Capital
Author: Hunter Price
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2024-06-05
Genre:
ISBN: 9780813951331

How Methodist settlers in the American West acted as agents of empire In the early years of American independence, Methodism emerged as the new republic's fastest growing religious movement and its largest voluntary association. Following the contours of settler expansion, the Methodist Episcopal Church also quickly became the largest denomination in the early American West. With Sacred Capital, Hunter Price resituates the Methodist Episcopal Church as a settler-colonial institution at the convergence of "the Methodist Age" and Jefferson's "Empire of Liberty." Price offers a novel interpretation of the Methodist Episcopal Church as a network through which mostly white settlers exchanged news of land and jobs and facilitated financial transactions. Benefiting from Indigenous dispossession and removal policies, settlers made selective, strategic use of the sacred and the secular in their day-to-day interactions to advance themselves and their interests. By analyzing how Methodists acted as settlers while identifying as pilgrims, Price illuminates the ways that ordinary white Americans fulfilled Jefferson's vision of an Empire of Liberty while reinforcing the inequalities at its core.

American Methodism

American Methodism
Author: Jean Miller Schmidt
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Total Pages: 578
Release: 2012-10-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1426765177

In this engaging and artful overview, Russell Richey, Kenneth Rowe, and Jean Miller Schmidt, some of Methodism’s most respected teachers, give readers a vivid picture of soulful terrain of the Methodist experience in America. The authors highlight key themes and events that continue to shape the Church. Knowing their history, Methodists are better positioned, prepared, and inspired for faithful witness and holy living.

Disciples of Liberty

Disciples of Liberty
Author: Lawrence S. Little
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2000
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781572330856

Further, it examines the attitudes of ordinary elders and laypersons, showing that they closely followed current events and demonstrating that AME leadership also was exercised from the bottom up." "A century ago, the AME Church recognized that prejudice at home was also a reflection of imperialism abroad. By focusing on the theme of liberty, Little's study offers new insights into that era and shows how African Americans developed a stand on universal human rights and self-determination."--BOOK JACKET.

The Cambridge Companion to American Methodism

The Cambridge Companion to American Methodism
Author: Jason E. Vickers
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2013-10-07
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1107008344

A comprehensive introduction to various forms of American Methodism, exploring the beliefs and practices around which the lives of these churches have revolved.

The Methodists and Revolutionary America, 1760-1800

The Methodists and Revolutionary America, 1760-1800
Author: Dee E. Andrews
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2010-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1400823595

The Methodists and Revolutionary America is the first in-depth narrative of the origins of American Methodism, one of the most significant popular movements in American history. Placing Methodism's rise in the ideological context of the American Revolution and the complex social setting of the greater Middle Atlantic where it was first introduced, Dee Andrews argues that this new religion provided an alternative to the exclusionary politics of Revolutionary America. With its call to missionary preaching, its enthusiastic revivals, and its prolific religious societies, Methodism competed with republicanism for a place at the center of American culture. Based on rare archival sources and a wealth of Wesleyan literature, this book examines all aspects of the early movement. From Methodism's Wesleyan beginnings to the prominence of women in local societies, the construction of African Methodism, the diverse social profile of Methodist men, and contests over the movement's future, Andrews charts Methodism's metamorphosis from a British missionary organization to a fully Americanized church. Weaving together narrative and analysis, Andrews explains Methodism's extraordinary popular appeal in rich and compelling new detail.

Taking Heaven by Storm

Taking Heaven by Storm
Author: John H. Wigger
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2001
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780252069949

In 1770 there were fewer than 1,000 Methodists in America. Fifty years later, the church counted more than 250,000 adherents. Identifying Methodism as America's most significant large-scale popular religious movement of the antebellum period, John H. Wigger reveals what made Methodism so attractive to post-revolutionary America. Taking Heaven by Storm shows how Methodism fed into popular religious enthusiasm as well as the social and economic ambitions of the "middling people on the make"--skilled artisans, shopkeepers, small planters, petty merchants--who constituted its core. Wigger describes how the movement expanded its reach and fostered communal intimacy and "intemperate zeal" by means of an efficient system of itinerant and local preachers, class meetings, love feasts, quarterly meetings, and camp meetings. He also examines the important role of African Americans and women in early American Methodism and explains how the movement's willingness to accept impressions, dreams, and visions as evidence of the work and call of God circumvented conventional assumptions about education, social standing, gender, and race. A pivotal text on the role of religion in American life, Taking Heaven by Storm shows how the enthusiastic, egalitarian, entrepreneurial, lay-oriented spirit of early American Methodism continues to shape popular religion today.