William Watters was American Methodism's first itinerant preacher born in America. Although raised in an Anglican home, Watters was converted under the preaching and influence of Methodist preachers and soon became a class leader. At the invitation of Robert Williams, one of John Wesley's earliest workers in America, Watters embarked on his first itinerant preaching journey to the southeastern region of Virginia in October 1772. Watters quickly rose to prominence in the budding Methodist movement as a preacher and leader and was appointed to his first circuit at the 1773 Conference. As the Revolutionary War against Britain grew more intense Wesley's missionaries left the country or went into hiding. As a result Watters became a significant leader of Methodism, which included becoming the first American Methodist to chair a Methodist Conference in 1778. In the late 1770's the growing problem of limited access to the ordinances of baptism and communion came to a head with Methodists in Virginia and North Carolina ordaining themselves so that they could administer the ordinances. This created a split in American Methodism since preachers north of Virginia disagreed with these actions. In 1779 and 1780 the split was even more evident, with two separate annual conferences meeting. William Watters was the only preacher determined not to allow American Methodism to suffer irreparable damage from the schism. His proactive peacemaking efforts resulted in the reunification of the movement that met in a united Conference in 1781. Watters gave America Methodism fifty years of distinguished service as an itinerant preacher, a local pastor, trustee and benefactor. Health took William Watters off the punishing circuits but it could never keep him from serving the Lord through American Methodism. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th.(Church History)

This thesis examine the cultural interaction between Anishinabe people, who lived in what is now southern Ontario, and the Loyalists, Euroamerican settlers who moved north from the United States during and after the American Revolution. Starting with an analysis of Anishinabe cultural history before the settlement era the thesis argues that Anishinabe spirituality was not traditionalist. Rather it inclined its practitioners to search for new knowledge. Further, Anishinabe ethics in this period were determined corporately based on the immediate needs and expectations of individual communities. As such, Anishinabe ethics were quite separate from Anishinabe spiritual teachings. Between 1760 and 1815, the Anishinabe living north of the Great Lakes participated in pan-Native resistance movements to the south. The spiritual leaders of these movements, sometimes called nativists, taught that tradition was an important religious virtue and that cultural integration was dangerous and often immoral. These nativist teachings entered the northern Anishinabe cultural matrix and lived alongside earlier hierarchies of virtue that identified integration and change as virtues. When Loyalist Methodists presented their teachings to the Anishinabeg in the early nineteenth century their words filtered through both sets of teachings and found purchase in the minds of many influential leaders. Such leaders quickly convinced members of their communities to take up the Methodist practices and move to agricultural villages. For a few brief years in the 1830s these villages achieved financial success and the Anishinabe Methodist leaders achieved real social status in both Anishinabe and Euroamerican colonial society. By examining the first generation of Anishinabe Methodists who practiced between 1823 and 1840, I argue that many Anishinabe people adopted Christianity as new wisdom suitable for refitting their existing cultural traditions to a changed cultural environment. Chiefs such as Peter Jones (Kahkewahquonaby), and their followers, found that Methodist teachings cohered with major tenets of their own traditions, and also promoted bimadziwin, or health and long life, for their communities. Finally, many Anishinabe people believed that the basic moral injunctions of their own tradition compelled them to adopt Methodism because of its potential to promote bimadziwin. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2008-07-17 13:59:23.833

William Watters was American Methodism's first itinerant preacher born in America. Although raised in an Anglican home, Watters was converted under the preaching and influence of Methodist preachers and soon became a class leader. At the invitation of Robert Williams, one of John Wesley's earliest workers in America, Watters embarked on his first itinerant preaching journey to the southeastern region of Virginia in October 1772. Watters quickly rose to prominence in the budding Methodist movement as a preacher and leader and was appointed to his first circuit at the 1773 Conference. As the Revolutionary War against Britain grew more intense Wesley's missionaries left the country or went into hiding. As a result Watters became a significant leader of Methodism, which included becoming the first American Methodist to chair a Methodist Conference in 1778. In the late 1770's the growing problem of limited access to the ordinances of baptism and communion came to a head with Methodists in Virginia and North Carolina ordaining themselves so that they could administer the ordinances. This created a split in American Methodism since preachers north of Virginia disagreed with these actions. In 1779 and 1780 the split was even more evident, with two separate annual conferences meeting. William Watters was the only preacher determined not to allow American Methodism to suffer irreparable damage from the schism. His proactive peacemaking efforts resulted in the reunification of the movement that met in a united Conference in 1781. Watters gave America Methodism fifty years of distinguished service as an itinerant preacher, a local pastor, trustee and benefactor. Health took William Watters off the punishing circuits but it could never keep him from serving the Lord through American Methodism. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / D.Th.(Church History)

This thesis is a comparative study of the theologies of the law in Martin Luther and John Wesley. Though Luther’s view of the law has been investigated by many Luther scholars, and Wesley’s view by a few Wesley scholars, no one has yet attempted to compare and contrast both theologians’ views of the law as a book-length project. This thesis contributes to scholarship, firstly, by investigating their theologies of the law in relation to subjects of systematic theology, namely, their views of God, Christology, Pneumatology, soteriology, anthropology, and Christian ethics. On the basis of a reliable examination of both theologians’ views of the law, this thesis also analyses the similarities and differences between them. For both theologians, the law was not just one subject among many, but an essential element that penetrated every topic they dealt with. This thesis makes clear the different motives and the characteristics of their theologies of the law in all of the subjects discussed in this thesis. Doing this, this thesis not only deals with long debated questions, such as whether Luther taught justification by imputed righteousness or by theosis, and whether he taught the so-called third use of the law, but also examines subjects which have not been fully explored, such as Wesley’s views of the three offices of Christ with regard to the law, and of the role of the Holy Spirit in revealing and enabling fulfilment of the law. To provide a contextual analysis, their theologies of the law have been considered in their respective historical and religious situations. In Luther's view, his reformation was an attempt to correct a human-centred religion of the Catholic Church characterized by intellectualism and moralism, which he believed was caused by misapplication and distortion of the law as meritorious cause. Employing Philip Watson’s theocentric motif, and Brian Gerrish’s emphasis on justification by faith and two kingdoms as a framework for interpreting Luther’s theology, this thesis demonstrates that Luther represented all aspects of God’s all-sufficiency, His absolute freedom, imputation of Christ’s righteousness, spiritual trials and comfort by the Holy Spirit, justification and sanctification by faith, human beings as earthly creatures, Christians as saints and sinners, two uses of the law in God’s two kingdoms, as countermeasures against a human-centred religion of the Catholic Church. In his own historical context, what Wesley aimed to correct was not only the Catholic Church’s legalism, but also the Protestant Church’s antinomianism which he thought Luther’s negative representation of the law caused owing to his over-reaction against the Catholic doctrine of meritorious salvation. On the foundation of Luther’s teaching of sola gratia, Wesley endeavoured to bring Luther’s negative view of the law back to a balanced theology of the law. Employing Kenneth Collins’ analysis of the two-fold axial theme in Wesley’s theology – holiness (holy love) and grace (free and co-operant) – as a framework for understanding Wesley’s theology of the law, this thesis shows that in all subjects of God’s works, the three offices of Christ, the witness and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, the relationship between faith and love, human beings as the image of God, and sanctification as renewal of person and cosmos, Wesley’s evangelical synergism makes room for the role of the law on the foundation of God’s grace.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:48:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos Antonio Valentim.pdf: 188796 bytes, checksum: f67ad9a0727708516a5a52d4a310e05a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-06 / This research aims to analyze the thoughts on the Brazilian religious institution under the eye of the traveler and the American Methodist missionary Daniel Parish Kidder through his narrative of travels in Brazil in the first half of the nineteenth century. It is used as the theoretical thinking of the Annales school, specifically E. P. Thompson with its historical logic that says that each time, each generation will be different questions for the object under study and will reach different answers. To contextualize the subject there is the interpretation of Brazilian society made by the writers Gilberto Freyre, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda and Caio Prado Junior, on the period of colonial Brazil. To understand the foreign view, we analyze what other travelers have also said on the religiousness in Brazil, for it is observed that Auguste Saint-Hilaire, Jean-Baptiste Debret and Richard Francis Burton said on the subject, they are unanimous in identifying the difficulty of civilizing Brazil is due to the Brazilian religiosity, which according to Saint-Hilaire Catholicism has undergone a social decline upon contact with the primitive nature. For Kidder, interpreters of Brazil and travelers, Brazil is not civilized because the Catholic Church was unable to evangelize the country, not having a position to do so because of the ignorance and immorality of the clergy. Kidder also denounces Catholicism, which instead of leading the faithful to God, away from him. For him, preaching the gospel was central to civilize Brazil. Kidder considers that the gospel that American Protestants offered to the Brazilians brought in its bulge the progress. Brazil with the Gospel would become a country of men and women who would know how to read and write, thus contributing to the personal and social development, towards progress. / Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo refletir sobre os pensamentos sobre a instituição religiosa brasileira sob o olhar do viajante e missionário metodista norteamericano Daniel Parish Kidder por meio de seus relatos de viagens no Brasil na primeira metade do século XIX. Utiliza-se como referencial teórico o pensamento da Escola dos Annales, mais especificamente E. P. Thompson com sua lógica histórica, que diz que cada época, cada geração fará perguntas diferentes para o objeto estudado e terá respostas diferentes. Para a contextualização do tema observa-se a interpretação da sociedade brasileira feita pelos escritores Gilberto Freyre, Sérgio Buarque de Holanda e Caio Prado Júnior sobre o período do Brasil colônia. Para compreender a visão estrangeira, analisa-se o que outros viajantes também disseram sobre a religiosidade brasileira e observa-se o que Auguste De Saint-Hilaire, Jean-Baptiste Debret e Richard Francis Burton afirmaram sobre o tema, os quais são unânimes em identificar que a dificuldade de civilizar o Brasil ocorre devido à religiosidade brasileira que, segundo Saint-Hilaire o catolicismo sofreu uma regressão social quando em contato com a natureza primitiva. Para Kidder, e para os intérpretes do Brasil e os viajantes, o Brasil não é civilizado porque a Igreja Católica não conseguiu evangelizar o país, não tendo condições de fazê-lo devido à imoralidade e ignorância do clero. Kidder denuncia também o catolicismo, que em vez de levar os fiéis a Deus, os afastava dele. Para ele, a pregação do evangelho era fundamental para civilizar o Brasil, pois entende que o evangelho que os protestantes norte-americanos ofereceriam para os brasileiros trazia em seu bojo o progresso. Portanto, o Brasil com o evangelho se tornaria um país de homens e mulheres que saberiam ler e escrever, contribuindo assim para o desenvolvimento pessoal e social, rumo ao progresso.

Si l’on porte un regard d’ensemble sur les pratiques par lesquelles, dès leur naissance en 1738, les méthodistes se démarquaient de l’orthodoxie de leur « Eglise-mère », l’Eglise d’Angleterre, il est possible d’identifier une base commune, qui serait une conception différente des ministères. C’est en effet, sur cette question que se cristallisèrent les divergences entre les disciples de John Wesley d’une part, et l’Eglise d’Angleterre d’autre part. Le père du méthodisme considérait en effet que prêtres et évêques étaient du même ordre presbytéral et que, en conséquence, ils avaient les mêmes pouvoirs, et notamment celui d’ordonner. Les méthodistes se distinguaient également des anglicans par leur conception du ministère de la Parole, puisqu’ils estimaient que Dieu pouvait désigner des laïcs pour prêcher l’Evangile. C’est donc à la question des ministères que l’on peut,en fin de compte, rattacher toutes les divergences qui se firent jour entre méthodisme et anglicanisme. Ces divergences se prolongèrent après la mort de John Wesley en 1791. Tout au long du XIXe siècle, les deux Eglises s’éloignèrent de plus en plus l’une de l’autre en raison du désaccord qui existait quant à la validité du ministère méthodiste qui ne s’inscrivait pas dans la succession apostolique. Il fallut attendre les années 1950-1960 pour que l’idée d’une fusion du méthodisme britannique et de l’Eglise d’Angleterre au sein d’une même Eglise épiscopalienne germe au plus haut niveau, avant d’échouer définitivement en 1972 devant le refus de l’Assemblée de l’Eglise puis du Synode général de l’avaliser / If we cast a global look on the practices through which, from the beginning of the movement in 1738, the Methodists deviated from Church of England’s (their « mother-Church »’s) orthodoxy, we can identify a common factor: a different conception of the ministries. It is on this single question that John Wesley and his disciples fundamentally diverged from the Church of England’s principles, since the father of Methodism considered that priests and bishops formed essentially a single “presbyter” order and consequentially had the same powers, including that of ordination. The Methodists also had a different conception of the Ministry of the Word, since they considered that God could call lay people to preach the Gospel. All the differences that arose between Methodism and the Church of England can then be traced to the question of the ministries. These differences continued after the death of John Wesley in 1791. Throughout the XIXt! h century, the two denominations grew further apart because of their disagreement concerning apostolic succession. In the 1950s and 1960s, however, the reunion of British Methodism and the Church of England in a single Episcopalian confession was contemplated but finally abandoned in 1972 because of the refusal of the Church of England’s Church Assembly and then of its General Synod to approve this union

This work examines the construction of suffering in the hymns of Charles Wesley, co-founder of the Methodist movement. Wesley wrote thousands of hymns, many of which focus on the experience of overwhelming pain. As eighteenth-century men and women sang or read Wesley's hymns, they were encouraged to adopt a distinctive approach to suffering, one which drew on long-standing elen1ents within Christian tradition as well as new patterns in eighteenth-century English culture. Identifying the construction of suffering in the hymns illuminates the culture of early Methodism and its complex relationship to its eighteenth century English context. / My analysis places the hymns within the broader ‘narrative culture’ of early Methodism, which encouraged individuals to interpret their lives and experiences within a story of great spiritual significance. The hymns engaged men and women with a spiritual drama of conviction, conversion, sanctification and heavenly reward. I argue that suffering was central to Wesley's depiction of this drama. I examine his construction of the suffering of Christ, the suffering of Christians and of Christian responses to the suffering of others, den10nstrating that each of these had an important place in his depiction of the normative Christian experience. Those who read or sang the hymns were exhorted to embrace and endure suffering as an experience that offered opportunities for intill1acy with, and imitation of, Christ. / Recognising Wesley's construction of suffering does not explain exactly how Methodist men and Women responded to affliction, but it does illuminate their responses. I explore the implications of Wesley's construction of suffering for early Methodist understandings of the self, spirituality, charity and gender, as well as specific kinds of pain such as childbirth and bereavement. These understandings contributed to a Methodist identity that was both related to, and distinct from, the eighteenth-century English culture in which the hymns were written.

The Morleyville Methodist Mission located near Morley, Alberta, was occupied from 1873 to 1921 (approximate date of abandonment). The Reverend George McDougall and his son John were responsible for the establishment of the mission. Both men were prominent figures in the history of the settlement and development of Alberta and the Canadian northwest. John was a major participant in the settlement of Treaty 7 and the arrival of the N.W.M.P. in the west.<p> The mission site was excavated over two field seasons in 1984-85 by Dr. Margaret A. Kennedy, now of the University of Saskatchewan. The resultant artifact assemblage contains in excess of 25,000 items, largely in a fragmentary state. Of this number approximately 3,000 artifacts were considered for analysis.<p> The focus of this current research is an examination of the mission's domestic sphere, specifically as it applied to women and Methodism. For the purpose of this research only the categories of "Ceramics", "Other Glass",and "Bottles and Jars" were considered. Though the Morleyville Mission was occupied during the Victorian era, historic literature and documents tell us little of the reality of the domestic sphere at a frontier site. The domestic elaboration of the Victorian era has been well documented. However, whether such elaboration was the case at the mission site was open to some speculation.<p> Therefore, these categories were assessed as providing the most accurate reflection of the domestic life of the mission households. It is believed that the presence and absence of specific ceramic waretypes and the identification of patterned sets will help illuminate this issue. It was hoped that, by using these categories to examine the domestic life of these middle-class Victorian Methodists a more accurate picture of the domestic life of the inhabitants of a mission on the northwest frontier of Canada could be developed.<p> However, it is with caution that I put forth my conclusions for the Morleyville Mission. Though the Archeological evidence does not support my initial objectives, this thesis has succeed in providing important information regarding the domestic lifestyle at the Morleyville Mission and indicates that other factors were active at the site.

In the past two decades or so, feminist historians have sifted through the copious illustrations of the turbulent, emotion-ridden years of early nineteenth-century American revivalism to devote considerable attention to the rise of female evangelism. Despite the notable upsurge, scholars generally remain untutored about the plethora of powerful female preachers who devoted their lives to advancing the kingdom of God. This dissertation seeks to resurrect the voice of one such woman: Dorothy Ripley (1767- 1831), an evangelist from Whitby, England, whose personal and evangelical awakening rivaled the revolutionary power of the revivalism sweeping the new Republic. Citing her direct mandate from God to preach, Dorothy grasped religion and reshaped it into a spiritually, culturally, and politically altering device. She became the first woman to preach before the U.S. Congress, composed five literary volumes (most of which she published herself and in multiple editions), crossed the Atlantic as many as nineteen times, and traveled up and down the Eastern Seaboard to preach among the different levels of society in a variety of settings. As an unlicensed, unsanctioned preacher, Dorothy defied powerful social and religious conventions by her solitary travel, scriptural exegesis, public performances, and presumption of the patriarchally assigned and protected role of preacher. She strove to proclaim the gospel even at the expense of reputation, family ties, home and hearth, marriage and motherhood, and personal security. Her rebelliousness allowed her to rise above the backstage role commonly assigned to, and accepted by, women of the early Republic. Her works serve as cultural artifacts by providing eyewitness accounts spotlighting the problems inherent in the formative years of a Republic reeling with the headiness of self-rule: the tension between Protestantism and American capitalism, the conflict between an emerging elite and the increasingly dissatisfied lower class, the misogyny of the cult of domesticity and separate spheres, the embryonic stages of widespread social reform, and the virulent ethnocentrism of the rhetoric of Manifest Destiny. Through an examination of her spiritual autobiographies, this dissertation seeks to enrich scholarly understanding of women’s influence in the evolution of evangelization, abolitionism, women’s rights, and social service.

The Morleyville Methodist Mission located near Morley, Alberta, was occupied from 1873 to 1921 (approximate date of abandonment). The Reverend George McDougall and his son John were responsible for the establishment of the mission. Both men were prominent figures in the history of the settlement and development of Alberta and the Canadian northwest. John was a major participant in the settlement of Treaty 7 and the arrival of the N.W.M.P. in the west.<p> The mission site was excavated over two field seasons in 1984-85 by Dr. Margaret A. Kennedy, now of the University of Saskatchewan. The resultant artifact assemblage contains in excess of 25,000 items, largely in a fragmentary state. Of this number approximately 3,000 artifacts were considered for analysis.<p> The focus of this current research is an examination of the mission's domestic sphere, specifically as it applied to women and Methodism. For the purpose of this research only the categories of "Ceramics", "Other Glass",and "Bottles and Jars" were considered. Though the Morleyville Mission was occupied during the Victorian era, historic literature and documents tell us little of the reality of the domestic sphere at a frontier site. The domestic elaboration of the Victorian era has been well documented. However, whether such elaboration was the case at the mission site was open to some speculation.<p> Therefore, these categories were assessed as providing the most accurate reflection of the domestic life of the mission households. It is believed that the presence and absence of specific ceramic waretypes and the identification of patterned sets will help illuminate this issue. It was hoped that, by using these categories to examine the domestic life of these middle-class Victorian Methodists a more accurate picture of the domestic life of the inhabitants of a mission on the northwest frontier of Canada could be developed.<p> However, it is with caution that I put forth my conclusions for the Morleyville Mission. Though the Archeological evidence does not support my initial objectives, this thesis has succeed in providing important information regarding the domestic lifestyle at the Morleyville Mission and indicates that other factors were active at the site.