Congregational Independency And Wesleyan Connexionalism Contrasted

This book treads new ground by bringing the Evangelical and Dissenting movements within Christianity into close engagement with one another. While Evangelicalism and Dissent both have well established historiographies, there are few books that specifically explore the relationship between the two. Thus, this complex relationship is often overlooked and underemphasised. The volume is organised chronologically, covering the period from the late seventeenth century to the closing decades of the twentieth century. Some chapters deal with specific centuries but others chart developments across the whole period covered by the book. Chapters are balanced between those that concentrate on an individual, such as George Whitefield or John Stott, and those that focus on particular denominational groups like Wesleyan Methodism, Congregationalism or the ‘Black Majority Churches’. The result is a new insight into the cross pollination of these movements that will help the reader to understand modern Christianity in England and Wales more fully. Offering a fresh look at the development of Evangelicalism and Dissent, this volume will be of keen interest to any scholar of Religious Studies, Church History, Theology or modern Britain.

“The substance of what follows in this book was delivered as the Fernley-Hartley Lecture at the Methodist Conference of 1975. A mere scanning of the names of those who have, from year to year, delivered these lectures is enough to daunt any newcomer to their ranks; sufficient is it also to quell and selfish pride—except, of course, the rightful pride and honor that one must feel, as I do, in being invited to deliver this lecture, especially as I do it in the city where I was ordained in 1939, and at the completion of my fortieth year in the ministry.” — From the Preface