COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is an introduction to the history of the Wesleyan movement with a particular focus on the United Methodist Church and its antecedent bodies. While giving primary weight to the history of Methodism, we will also discuss the theological and doctrinal dimensions of early Methodist teaching. Contemporary theological and doctrinal developments will be more closely examined in the United Methodist Polity and Contemporary Doctrine course (previously named UM Doctrine and Polity) than in this one. This course satisfies part of the requirements for United Methodist ordination described in paragraph 324.4a of the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, 2008.
REQUIRED READINGS:
David Hempton, Methodism: Empire of the Spirit, Yale University Press, 2005.
Benjamin L. Hartley, Evangelicals at a Crossroads: Revivalism and Social Reform in Boston, 1860-1910, Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2011.
Russell E. Richey, Kenneth E. Rowe, and Jean Miller Schmidt. The Methodist Experience in America: A Sourcebook. Nashville: Abingdon, 2000.
Students must choose ONE of the following two biographies to read:
John Wigger, American Saint: Francis Asbury and the Methodists, Oxford University Press, 2009.
Richard Newman, Freedom’s Prophet: Bishop Richard Allen, the AME Church, and the Black Founding Fathers. New York University Press, 2008.
Mission and Methodism 