A History Of The Rise Of Methodism In America

Reprint of the original, first published in 1859.

"Once a strong, vital, and growing denomination, the United Methodist Church is now barely recognizable after more than four decades of demoralization and membership decline. What has gone wrong? In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the American church saw the rise of "theological liberalism," a religious system that intended to respond to new scientific and intellectual currents that were sweeping across the culture. Instead, liberalism not only challenged, but often displaced the substance of the church's doctrine and teaching, accommodating it to the new intellectual milieu of secularism and rationalism. In The Rise of Theological Liberalism and the Decline of American Methodism, James Heidinger discusses the rise of liberalism in America, its anti-supernatural focuses, and the resulting transition in Wesleyan theology. While there are undoubtedly many dimensions to the decline of a denomination, Heidinger suggests we look no further than theological liberalism as the driving force behind the fall of the once-mighty United Methodist Church"--

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.

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