This thesis has two overarching aims. The first aim is to understand the origins and development of temperance and abstinence in British Methodism, particularly through the theology that informed what may broadly be called the Methodist teetotal movement in its period of greatest popularity from 1830 until 1919. The second is to consider the downfall of this movement in the period from 1945 until 1974, when the Methodist Connexion adopted the view that each Methodist “must consider his personal attitude to all drugs in relation to his Christian vocation”. The need for the study arises from the relative dearth of historical investigation regarding Methodism and abstinence. Representations of Methodism and abstinence tend either to be partisan or to lack wider understanding of the abstinence movement, or the theology of Methodism. Methodologically, this thesis attempts to hold together historical and theological considerations; it is important to consider both the socio-economic contexts in which diverse abstinence and teetotal movements arose and the theological motivations that drove British Methodist belief and practice. Regarding the origins and development of temperance and abstinence in British Methodism, it is proposed in this thesis that the Bible Christians were the first organised Methodist abstainers, and that their practice was likely to have been influenced by John Wesley's theologies of sanctification, holiness and Christian perfection. The thesis is an attempt to counter the Bible Christian’s diminished historical significance, as well as to investigate the likely impact of the theological underpinnings for their abstinence. Regarding the downfall of temperance and abstinence in British Methodism in the period from 1945 until 1974, this thesis will propose that a loss of focus upon holiness as a catalyst for abstinence was detrimental to the growth and continuation of the teetotal movement throughout Methodism after World War Two. It will highlight the general rejection of this focus on encouraged abstinence in the second half of the twentieth century, acknowledging the changes and disagreement within British Methodism to which this dismissal led. Concluding comments allude to the need for a renewed witness within British Methodism to societal and theological imperatives for both temperance and abstinence.

This thesis provides the first large-scale reintegration of anti-Methodism into the wider theological controversies of the eighteenth century. It argues that there was a close connection - and in many cases, a direct link - between anti-Methodist writers and those involved in other theological controversies. Moreover, it shows that anti-Methodist polemics interacted with and were informed by contemporary debates on such issues as Deism, miracles, and the afterlife. This study also explores authors who used anti-Methodism as a forum to voice heterodox views. The fact that these heterodox ideas were often disagreeable to both evangelicals and High Churchmen is significant because it suggests that - on various points of theology - John Wesley and George Whitefield differed little from their ‘orthodox' Anglican opponents. By highlighting these theological similarities between evangelicals and High Churchmen, this thesis challenges the traditional stereotype that the eighteenth-century Church of England had become indifferent to theology. Chapter One introduces Wesley and Whitefield's key Anglican opponents, and discusses the print culture of early anti-Methodist literature. Chapter Two locates the soteriological disputes between Methodist and anti-Methodist divines as part of a long-standing debate on faith and works, which can be traced back to earlier clashes between Reformed and Arminian divines during the Restoration period. Chapter Three analyses Methodist teachings on self-denial, and considers the ways in which anti-Methodist clergymen reconciled their attacks on evangelical asceticism with their seemingly contradictory charges of antinomianism. Chapter Four explores how anti-Methodism was used as a platform to voice heterodox views on original sin and the afterlife. Chapters Five and Six provide a fundamental reappraisal of the relationship (and perceived relationship) between evangelicalism and irreligion by showing that anti-Methodism overlapped with anti-Deism and the eighteenth-century miracles debate. The final chapter shows that anti-Methodist authors often adopted a decidedly partisan approach to historical writing, which was modelled on seventeenth-century polemical historiography.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of New Brunswick, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references.

The diploma thesis "Early Methodists Social Work against the background of social and political-economic history of England" deals with the causes of the origin of Methodism, and most importantly it deals with the description of John Wesley's social activites. He tried to confirm the thesis that the social feeling of Methodists at that time also was, besides other things, a reaction to the relationship of the Church of England to the needy and suffering ones. The first part is about the social, political and economic history of England during the 16-18th centuries, which are instrumental in looking into and understanding the social conditions of that time. The second part, and the pivotal one, briefly introduces the causes of Methodism as well as it slighty mentions John Wesley's motivations of his social feeling and actions. The major part of the chapter relates to individual social activities that Wesley considered to be significant ones and that he applied in practise with other Methodists. It is evident that Wesley's social work was strongly driven and determined as well as it was rightly directed towards its aim at the needful ones. The Methodists laid the foundations of organized social care. The work of John Wesley was influential in the further development of social work, and also it is...

This thesis presents the first full account of the life and achievements of Bradford-born W. Riley (1866-1961), once internationally known as a popular and prolific Yorkshire author. Before becoming a famous writer, he was Managing Director of the successful Bradford Optical Lantern Company, Riley Brothers and was also, for 75 years, a Methodist local preacher and an important layman within northern Methodism. He wrote 39 books, published many stories and articles, and was a busy lecturer. Riley located most of his 30 novels in the Yorkshire Dales and has left a legacy of vivid portraits of people and places in the dales that he knew and loved. This biography of Riley draws upon material never seen hitherto, expanding upon the author's diffident autobiography. The complete bibliography of his extensive writings includes much new and long-lost material. In presenting Riley to a new generation, this account places him in context with his contemporaries. Riley proclaimed his Christianity sympathetically and attractively to his receptive public in much of his output. This thesis includes an insight into the spiritual life, outlook and thinking of a popular and much-respected committed and active Methodist local preacher. Riley's life story is the account of a remarkably successful, self-motivated Victorian. He was a household name in his time, both in Yorkshire and internationally. The research for this thesis has uncovered important material relating to Riley, which will be held in the W. Riley Archive, at the Special Collections Section of the University of Bradford J.P. Priestley Library.

No description available.

John D. Wagg was a native of Ashe County, North Carolina and a Southern Methodist circuit minister active immediately before and during the Civil War. His surviving journal, sermons, and received letters allow us to employ him as a window into a particular time, place, and set of conditions. To facilitate this, selections from the Wagg documents have been transcribed, edited, and presented as a Web-based digital edition, the Digital John D. Wagg Papers. This edition is designed to work with many other editions of similarly narrow historical and geographical scope as one historical witness in a network of witnesses. We must draw from several varieties of documents in the John Wagg collection and from contextualizing historical scholarship to construct a history of Wagg as a product of and participant in his times. Born 8 July 1835, Wagg began keeping a journal in 1854 as he worked toward a degree in medicine at Jefferson, North Carolina, the Wagg family hometown. As a diarist he often explored the place of humanity in a God-made world, a theme that foreshadows his turn from medicine and entry into the itinerant ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South in October 1858. Wagg spent the Civil War years preaching throughout western North Carolina and southwest Virginia, generally striving to keep his heavily Confederate-leaning politics from the pulpit. This lifestyle allows the Wagg Papers to bring an alternate point of view to any archive of Civil War documents consisting primarily of the letters of combatants. / Master of Arts

Thesis / There is potential for a schism, within the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) today, between Fundamentalist and Liberationist Methodists, who struggle to find common identity and vision. A question that needs examination is whether it is possible to develop an authentically, uniting Southern African Methodist Theology within the current Institutional structure of the MCSA. For this to become possible, some key areas of discussion are highlighted in this paper, such as the training of ministers and the MCSA as Institution. This paper attempts to enter into conversation between Fundamental and Liberation Methodism using the Doctrine of Christian Perfection, 'the Grand Depositum' of Methodism, as a point of reference and develop an epistemological framework based on Wesley’s 'quadrilateral' of Scripture, reason, experience and tradition. This paper takes as a standpoint the need for an authentically Southern African Methodist theology, which is both uniting and transformatory, in order for the MCSA to fulfil its vision of “A Christ Healed Africa for the Healing of Nations.” / Systematic theology and Theological Ethics / D. Th. (Systematic Testament)

Thesis / There is potential for a schism, within the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) today, between Fundamentalist and Liberationist Methodists, who struggle to find common identity and vision. A question that needs examination is whether it is possible to develop an authentically, uniting Southern African Methodist Theology within the current Institutional structure of the MCSA. For this to become possible, some key areas of discussion are highlighted in this paper, such as the training of ministers and the MCSA as Institution. This paper attempts to enter into conversation between Fundamental and Liberation Methodism using the Doctrine of Christian Perfection, 'the Grand Depositum' of Methodism, as a point of reference and develop an epistemological framework based on Wesley’s 'quadrilateral' of Scripture, reason, experience and tradition. This paper takes as a standpoint the need for an authentically Southern African Methodist theology, which is both uniting and transformatory, in order for the MCSA to fulfil its vision of “A Christ Healed Africa for the Healing of Nations.” / Systematic theology and Theological Ethics / D. Th. (Systematic Testament)

This graduation thesis deals with the manifestations of social activity Methodism in its origins. It starts with a description of the period in which the Methodist movement was born, it focuses mainly on the description of the life and works of John Wesley. The next section describes the basic concepts related to social work and provides an overview of particular social activities of the first Methodists. Finally, the author presents a brief description of the documents Social principles and Social creed and provides a brief overview of the social activities of the Methodist Church in Slovakia and the Czech Republic.