Haartman's analysis of ecstatic experience in early Methodism is contextualized within a brief review of the history of the movement and the theological assertions that underlay these religious behaviors. Wesley emphasized individual, as opposed to institutional religion and affrmed inductive as contrasted with deductive theology. "Sanctification," Wesley's term for personality transformation, is seen as positive ego development rather than regressive splitting of the ego. Maslow's "peak experience" is affrmed as a valid model for analyzing ecstatic behaviors. Methodism no longer (...) emphasizes such forms of religious expression. (shrink)

The history of the Allan Library is here told systematically for the first time. This antiquarian collection of substantially foreign-language books and some manuscripts was formed by barrister Thomas Robinson Allan during the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s. His stated intention was to create a Methodist rival to Sion College Library and Dr Williamss Library. Allan donated it to the Wesleyan Methodist Conference in 1884, which funded the erection of purpose-built Allan Library premises opening in London in 1891. (...) However, the Wesleyans struggled to make a success of the enterprise as a subscription library, and the collection was in storage between 1899 and 1920, before being sold by Conference to the London Library. The Allan Library Trust was established with the proceeds of the sale. The reasons for the relative failure of Allans great library project are fully explored. (shrink)

Imagine a scene sometime in the 1750s in the depths of west Wales. This was wild country. Even a century later, George Borrow called it a ‘mountainous wilderness … a waste of russet-coloured hills, with here and there a black craggy summit’. Through this desolation rides the Reverend William Williams. As he rode, he read – and the book in his saddlebags on this occasion was William Derham's Astro-Theology, first published some twenty years earlier. Williams was a leading figure in (...) the Methodist revolution that had been sweeping through Wales for the past two decades. Disenchanted with an Anglican Church that seemed increasingly disconnected – culturally and linguistically – from their everyday lives, and attracted by powerful and charismatic preachers like Williams himself, men and women across Wales turned to Methodism. They organized themselves into local groups worshipping in meeting houses rather than in their parish churches. Leaders like Williams usually had a number of such groups under their care, and spent much of their time on horseback, travelling between widely scattered communities to minister to their congregations. That Williams read in the saddle is well known. As shall become clear, he had certainly read Derham's book as well. It is not too much of an imaginative leap, therefore, to picture him reading about God's design of the cosmos as he rode through the Welsh hills – and it is a good image with which to begin a discussion about Wales, science and European peripheries. (shrink)

Many Protestant denominations have or recently had policies that prohibit “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained. By only prohibiting “practicing” homosexuals, proponents of these policies claim that they do not discriminate against homosexuals as a group since, technically, a homosexual can still be ordained as long as she is “non-practicing.” In other words, a condemnation of homosexual practice is not the same as a condemnation of homosexual persons. I argue that this is not the case; the rhetoric of homosexual practice (...) does, in fact, amount to a condemnation of gays and lesbians. It does so by conflating the two things it claims to keep separate—homosexual conduct and homosexual identity. I demonstrate this conflation by analyzing the history of this rhetoric and how it has been adjudicated in church court decisions from the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA). (shrink)

The history of Christianity in Africa contains selected information reflecting patriarchal preoccupations. Historians have often downplayed the contributions of significant women, both European and indigenous African. The names of some significant women are given without details of their contribution to the growth of Christianity in Africa. This article considers the contributions of Peggy Hiscock to the growth of Christianity in Zambia. Hiscock was a White missionary who was sent to serve in Zambia by the Methodist Church in Britain. (...) She was the first woman to have been ordained in the United Church of Zambia. Hiscock established the Order of Diaconal Ministry and founded a school for the training of deaconesses in the United Church of Zambia. This article argues that although the nineteenth- and twentieth-century missionary movement in Africa is associated with patriarchy and European imperialism, there were European women missionaries who resisted imperialism and patriarchy both in the Church and society. (shrink)

Why is that? The stakes are now considerably higher. Darwinism: Science or Philosophy? is the proceedings of a symposium that took place at Southern Methodist University in the spring of 1992. The focus of that symposium was Phillip Johnson’s then recently published book Darwin on Trial. At the time, Johnson was a novelty -- a respected professor of criminal law at Cal Berkeley who was raising doubts about evolution. All harmless, good fun, no doubt. And Berkeley has an illustrious (...) history of harboring eccentrics, kooks, and oddballs. (shrink)

This paper has four aims: first, to outline the role of the sceptical problem of the criterion in the principal argument for epistemic relativism; second, to establish that methodist and particularist responses to the problem of the criterion do not, by themselves, constitute successful strategies for resisting epistemic relativism; third, to argue that a more fruitful strategy is to attempt to evaluate epistemic frameworks on the basis of the epistemic resources that they have in common; and finally, to make (...) the case that finding this common ground will necessarily involve determining how it is that a framework’s constituent epistemic methods depend on one another for not only their warrant, but for their application. (shrink)

The many admirable, endearing—and frustrating—features of Boston Personalism are beautifully reflected in this book. It should be welcomed for several reasons. It is timely; indeed, it comes at a moment that may show an upsurge of interest in the Personalist tradition. It is handsome; Mercer University Press should be praised for producing a book that is a physical delight to hold and to read. It is solid; the editors should be congratulated for successfully turning a series of videotaped lectures into (...) a book with intellectual substance and thematic integrity. The lectures themselves, given in 1984 as part of a course taught by Paul Deats and John Lavely at Boston University, were funded by a grant from the Divisions of Higher Education of the United Methodist Church. (shrink)

Within the holdings of The University of Manchesters John Rylands Library is a remarkable collection of 337 letters to and from Baptist ministers and laypersons written between 1741 and 1907. Nearly half can be found among the autograph collections of Thomas Raffles, Liverpool Congregationalist minister and educator, with another 103 letters belonging to the collections of the Methodist Archives. John Sutcliff, Baptist minister at Olney and an early leader within the Baptist Missionary Society, was the recipient of more than (...) seventy of these,letters. Among the correspondents are the leading Baptist and Congregationalist ministers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Although largely unknown today, these letters provide important insights into British Baptist history between 1740 and 1900, establishing the John Rylands Library,as a valuable resource for Baptist historians. (shrink)

Why is Butterfield's best-seller The Origins of Modern Science (1949) such a powerful big picture, nearly impossible to move away from? Considered in the context of his life, the contrast between his attacks on Whig history and the contents of his best-seller reveals that his big picture of science continues at the centre because of his spiritual beliefs and practices. Butterfield did not make explicit his Christian (Methodist) world view to his history of science readers, although one (...) could infer this from his point that Christianity and the Scientific Revolution were the most significant events in universal history, transcending cultural boundaries. As long as Christian beliefs and practices continue to be at the centre of Western Society, so will Butterfield's big picture be at the centre. Western society is a Christian civilization. For Butterfield, the meaning of history is Christianity and The Origins of Modern Science is very much a Christian statement of the evolution of knowledge acquisition in Western society. To de-centre The Origins would require first a de-centred view of Christianity. (shrink)

When Dylann Roof massacred nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June of 2015, he re-ignited a long-running debate over the appropriateness of having the flag of the American Confederacy fly over South Carolina’s state house. To many people of all races, it seems inconceivable why anyone would defend flying the Confederate flag over the state house. The flag obviously represents the Confederate States of America; it obviously highlights one of the most painful (...) memories in our nation’s history; furthermore, it obviously has a strong association with slavery and racism. If the flying of the flag celebrates dissent within the union, the death of Americans at each... (shrink)

Resumo O presente artigo faz parte de uma pesquisa sobre os espaços de discussão criados, a partir da internet, entre os membros clérigos e leigos da Igreja Metodista, nos meses que antecederam o 18º Concílio Geral, realizado em 2006, conclave que resultou na saída da instituição dos organismos ecumênicos em que atua e que ajudou a fundar. O objetivo consistiu em avaliar as possibilidades e limitações da internet como emergente espaço público ampliado para as instituições. A análise teve como suporte (...) os fundamentos da literatura nos aspectos da história dos meios de comunicação; comunicação política, espaço público e marketing político. O suporte histórico foram os fenômenos da Reforma Protestante e do Movimento Metodista, na Inglaterra do século XVIII. Os resultados permitem inferir que as novas tecnologias apresentam desafios para as instituições como o paradoxo democratização-fragmentação da autoridade. Palavras-chave: Poder e visibilidade; Espaço público; Marketing político; Comunicação institucional; Democratização.This article is part of a research work on the discussion spaces created by the Internet for the clergy and lay members of the Methodist Church, in the months preceding the 18th General Council, carried out in 2006, and resulting in the institution’s withdrawing from the ecumenical organisms where it worked and which it help founding. The research aimed at evaluating the possibilities and limitations of the Internet as an emerging public space opened to institutions. The analysis was based on the literature concerning the history of communication media; political communication, public space and political marketing. The historical background focused on the phenomena of Protestant Reform and the Methodist Movement in 18th–century England. Results indicate that the new technologies pose challenges to institutions, such as the paradox democratization-fragmentation of authority. Key words: Power and visibility; Public space; Political marketing; Institutional communication; Democratization. (shrink)

The number and variety of books received since Keimpe Algra’s last set of booknotes (vol. XLIX.2, 2004) indicate the current high level of scholarly interest in this area (which I am taking as being Greek and Roman thought from the third century BC to about 200 AD). There are important new contributions on all three main Hellenistic philosophical theories, Stoicism, Epicureanism and Scepticism, as well as some studies on broader or related topics. The first book discussed here is on Hellenistic-Roman (...) medicine, a volume by Manuela Tecusan on the Methodists.1 Despite its massive scale (over 800 pages), this is envisaged only as the first of three volumes; the second volume is to provide commentary, and a third volume, a companion to vol. 1, will cover the most important Methodist, Soranus. The present book includes about 100 pages of introduction and supporting material, consisting in part of a list of fragments and their sources and a thematic synopsis of the contents of the material included. The introduction offers a lucid and informative overview of the main features and figures of the Methodist school, and outlines the methodological principles and issues involved in making this collection. As with Stoicism (illustrated shortly), several of the most problematic interpretative questions arise in connection with Galen, who is the most important single source for this volume, though he is often highly critical of Methodism. Tecusan explains (pp. 41-2) that her original plan was to base the collection on an independent study of the manuscript tradition. In the event, she has adopted the policy of using the best or most recent available edition, but with her own textual revisions, highlighted in a selective apparatus. The translations are all her own, aiming where possible at consistency of terminology. The evidence assembled, as indicated in the synopsis of themes, covers the history and approach of the Methodist school, their relations with other schools, the main practitioners, key philosophical concepts, the medical theory and pathology of the school and individual Methodists.. (shrink)

On June 17, 2015, white supremacist Dylann Roof marched into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, and massacred nine black people in prayer. He credited his radicalization to the Council for Conservative Citizens, which was, in his words, "his gateway into the world of white nationalism."1 When Roof's selfies began to circulate—brandishing Confederate battle flags and standing in front of Greenville, South Carolina's own Museum and Library of Confederate History—the Southern civic sphere stammered in (...) response. Governor Nikki Haley had promised in 2014 never to remove the Confederate flag at the South Carolina State House, but after Roof's massacre and his flag-waving pride... (shrink)

The position of the United Methodist Church on end-of-life decisions is best described as intentional ambiguity or ambiguous intentions or both. The paper analyzes the official position of the denomination and then considers the actions of a U.M.C. bishop who served as a foreman for a trial of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. In an effort to find some common ground within an increasingly divided denomination, the work concludes with a consideration of the work of John Wesley and his approach to (...) human death. (shrink)

This is a review of Penrose's trilogy, The Emperor's New Mind, Shadows of the Mind and The Large the Small and the Human Mind.

Several years ago, we built a new hospital from the ground up in Dublin, Ohio, for the OhioHealth system, and we found ourselves presented with an opportunity to try to put the Fable hospital concept into practice. This planned ninety-four-bed community hospital was intended to serve the growing northwest quadrant of Franklin County, along with areas to the west and northwest. With tertiary facilities already a part of the OhioHealth system, Dublin Methodist was intended to provide primary and secondary (...) care. Our goal was to be as innovative as we could afford to be, to challenge the status quo at every turn. Our stated purpose was to "redefine the way patient care is provided" through the development of a .. (shrink)

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the intellectual output of the internees held captive as ‘enemy aliens’ on the Isle of Man during the Second World War. Looking at their interactions with local and national knowledge communities, including some Methodist priests who were responsible for introducing the internees to British political culture, it analyses how the social environment of internment created common intellectual experiences, which in turn led members of this involuntary community of displaced German-speaking scholars to form particular conceptions (...) of Englishness in the postwar era. This case study is placed in the context of wider debates about periodisation, the relationship between land-based, oceanic and other site-specific perspectives on the British Isles, as well as the entanglements between liberty and encampment in European and global contexts. (shrink)

This searching critique of the United Methodist Bishops' pastoral letter on war and peace in a nuclear age, by America's foremost Christian ethicist, exposes theological flaws from which flow gaps in moral argument and strangely utopian politics. Never before has In Defense of Creation been more thoroughly analyzed. At the same time Paul Ramsey gives a full-length and detailed comparison of the Methodist document with The Challenge of Peace by the U.S. Catholic Bishops. Issues of nuclear ethics, as (...) seen by the leaders of two major churches, are set fully in view for the first time in a single volume. This "ecumenical consultation" is broadened by drawing extensively on the writings of Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder. The book's larger purpose is to construe an encounter between Christian just-war tradition and Christian pacifism. This comparative discussion of Christian ethics should be of interest to any reader concerned about the nuclear crisis. Some of the questions confronted in these pages are: What do people mean by "nonviolence"? Should we never kill another human being, or never kill another human being unjustly? Do Christian pacifism and Christian just-war teachings have anything in common in their understanding of the Christian moral life? Do different interpretations of the person and work of Jesus Christ give rise to Christian pacifism and to just-war participation? Are these irreducibly different options equally valid for followers of Christ? Do the tests of discrimination and proportion lead to the same prohibitions on war and limits in war in a nuclear age? With an epilogue by Stanley Hauerwas, this volume offers the unusual event of two Methodist laymen engaged in lively debate over their church and the modern world. (shrink)

There are now two orders of ministry in the Methodist Church, the Order of Presbyters and the Order of Deacons. The latter developed out of the previously existing Deaconess Order but now enjoys the same status and privileges as the former. A study of the Order of Presbyters was completed in 2007, but it was thought that a similar study of the Order of Deacons would be of value in shedding light on the present task they are asked to (...) do, their work experience in the circuits, and the various stresses and demands to which they are subject. The data for this survey was collected by a questionnaire put to the 119 deacons of the Order then active in the circuits. Evidence from analysis showed that their congregations did not fully understand the nature of a deacons ministry, complicated by the fact that, unfortunately, deacons were often employed to ease a shortage of presbyters in the circuits. (shrink)

This searching critique of the United Methodist Bishops’ pastoral letter on war and peace in a nuclear age, by America’s foremost Christian ethicist, exposes theological flaws from which flow gaps in moral argument and strangely utopian politics. Never before has _In Defense of Creation _been more thoroughly analyzed. At the same time Paul Ramsey gives a full-length and detailed comparison of the Methodist document with _The Challenge of Peace_ by the U.S. Catholic Bishops. Issues of nuclear ethics, as (...) seen by the leaders of two major churches, are set fully in view for the first time in a single volume. This “ecumenical consultation” is broadened by drawing extensively on the writings of Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder. The book’s larger purpose is to construe an encounter between Christian just-war tradition and Christian pacifism. This comparative discussion of Christian ethics should be of interest to any reader concerned about the nuclear crisis. Some of the questions confronted in these pages are: What do people mean by “nonviolence”? Should we never kill another human being, or never kill another human being _unjustly_? Do Christian pacifism and Christian just-war teachings have anything in common in their understanding of the Christian moral life? Do different interpretations of the person and work of Jesus Christ give rise to Christian pacifism and to just-war participation? Are these irreducibly different options equally valid for followers of Christ? Do the tests of discrimination and proportion lead to the same prohibitions on war and limits in war in a nuclear age? With an epilogue by Stanley Hauerwas, this volume offers the unusual event of two Methodist laymen engaged in lively debate over their church and the modern world. (shrink)

Homelessness and its various forms of manifestation are a complex phenomenon. Street homelessness, which is the subject of this study, continues to be a challenge for the South African people and government. Different research studies have been undertaken on street homelessness. Various frameworks have been used in an attempt to understand and respond to street homelessness. Churches continue as key role-players in responses to street homelessness. There is a need, however, for churches to continually evaluate the various approaches to street (...) homelessness, with a view to sharpening those approaches to better understand and respond to the challenge. Churches need frameworks that can help them to theologically understand and adequately respond to street homelessness. Gustafson's framework of moral engagement is explored within the context of street homelessness, with a view to suggest ways and means by which the Methodist Church of Southern Africa could better understand and adequately respond to the problem of street homelessness in South Africa. (shrink)

Methodist Central Halls were built in most British towns and cities. They were designed not to look like churches in order to appeal to the working classes. Entirely multi-functional, they provided room for concerts, plays, film shows and social work alongside ordinary worship. Some contained shops in order to pay for the future upkeep of the building. The prototype for this programme was provided in Manchester and opened on Oldham Street in 1886. This article offers a first analysis of (...) it as a building type and looks at the wider social and cultural contribution of the building. It continues the narrative by discussing changing use and design during a twentieth century that witnessed the widespread contraction of Methodist congregations. (shrink)

The Methodist Church in Zimbabwe was established in 1891. In 1977, it was granted autonomy by the British Methodist Church. From 1891, top church leadership has been dominated by male clergy. This article explores three instances of a challenge to this trend. The first occurred in 1994 when there was a leadership crisis in one of the districts, and for the first time, a woman was appointed district chairperson. The second followed the election in August 2004 of a (...) male presiding bishop. However, allegations of moral impropriety were made against him. He approached the secular courts, and it led to his withdrawal from the position. The church appointed a woman to the position of acting presiding bishop. When the time came for the substantive post to be filled in August 2005, she was not confirmed in the position; a man was elected instead. The third relates to the controversial appointment in 2017 of a woman to one of the five vacant positions of district bishops. The aim of the research was to analyse the way in which these three women rose to positions of leadership in a male-dominated church. A qualitative research methodology was followed, with data being collected through open-ended interviews. The study highlighted that to be a female clergy leader in the MCZ entails rising against all odds. The study concluded by encouraging the MCZ to support women on their path to leadership rather than overlooking or, worse still, undermining them.Contribution: In spite of the challenges female clergy face in their quest for leadership roles, this feminist ecclesiological study shows stories of rising against all odds, describing the momentum-gaining progress of the ecclesiastical effort in the MCZ to accommodate female leaders, despite slow-moving processes. (shrink)