METHODISM

movement founded by John Wesley in the 18th century, purportedly to revitalize the Church of England. The movement survives in the form of the modern Methodist churches worldwide. In 1738 Wesley, an Anglican clergyman, attended a religious meeting where, as he relates in his Journal, he felt his heart strangely warmed and experienced an assurance of personal salvation he had not known before. Soon he was cooperating with George Whitefield in open-air preaching among the outcasts of societythose who felt themselves neglected by the Church of England. Although Wesley later separated from Whitefield on doctrinal grounds, he was joined by many lay recruits and a few ordained clergy, most notably his brother Charles, whose hymns expressed the message of the Methodist Revival. The Methodists formed a society within the Church of England. Wesley never wished them to leave the church, but after years of strained relations, the formal break with the Church of England came in 1795, four years after Wesley's death. The Methodists' tightly knit system of church government, which combined a strong central authority with effective local organization and the employment of lay preachers, enabled the movement to expand rapidly throughout the 19th century. Methodism was especially successful in the expanding industrial areas, where it helped the working people to overcome economic depression by spiritual means and often, by encouraging thrift and simple living, to raise their economic status as well. In America the Methodist Episcopal Church was constituted as an autonomous body in 1784 under the guidance of Francis Asbury and Thomas Coke, who organized the American church according to Wesley's principles but adapted them to the needs of both the settled communities and the frontier. Although the first Methodist itinerants did not arrive in America until shortly before the Revolution, by the middle of the 19th century the Methodists had more members than any other American denomination. This remarkable advance occurred especially on the American frontier, where Methodist circuit riders preached to the frontier folk in simple terms. It was the unique Methodist institutions, however, that made Methodism so dynamic an element in American Protestantism. Methodists were organized locally into classes which enforced discipline, while a hierarchical structure with a strong central authority efficiently organized and supervised the itinerant preachers. The Methodist advance was temporarily halted in 1844 by the church's division into Northern and Southern branches over the issue of slavery. After the Civil War, both branches continued their rapid increase in numbers and in material resources. As Methodism gradually became assimilated to the general pattern of middle-class American Protestantism, a holiness movement emerged out of Methodism and then separated from it in the late 19th century. The Northern and Southern branches reunited in 1939, and further mergers took place later in the 20th century, but the independent holiness and pentecostal denominations that grew out of the holiness movement still exist. The black Methodist churches, which had been merged into a new central jurisdiction in 1939 (forming a separate but equal jurisdiction within the United Methodist Church), gradually became integrated after 1968. By 1974 all districts based on race had been abolished. Because of the enthusiasm for missionary activity among both British and American Methodists, the movement has become worldwide. The churches derived from American Methodism are more widespread and more numerous, but the movement toward autonomy has proceeded more smoothly among those in the British sphere of influence. Despite a series of schisms in both British and American Methodism in the 19th century, Methodists have gradually but consistently moved toward reunification in the 20th century, and Methodists from all countries have played a full part in worldwide ecumenical activities. Despite wide variations in belief, practice, and status, Methodists share a warm acceptance of the doctrines of historic Christianity, without a stringent insistence on the need for doctrinal conformity or a great interest in theological speculation. They share an emphasis on those doctrines that indicate the power of the Holy Spirit to confirm the faith of the believer and to transform one's personal life (especially the teaching about assurance and Christian perfection that is associated with John Wesley); an insistence that the heart of religion lies in one's personal relationship with God; a simplicity of worship and a partnership of ordained ministers and laity in the worship and administration of the church; a concern for the underprivileged and the betterment of social conditions; the formation of small groups for mutual encouragement and edification; a connectional system of government (by which all ministers are in connection with the central authority of the church, and the agencies of the church are centrally administered); and an allegiance to John Wesley. movement begun in the 18th century as a religious society that wished to reform the Church of England from within. By force of circumstance it became separate from its parent body and took on the characteristics of an autonomous church. Additional reading Gordon Rupp, Religion in England, 16881791 (1986), on the background and rise of Methodism; Rupert Davies, Gordon Rupp, and A. Raymond George (eds.), A History of the Methodist Church in Great Britain, 4 vol. (196688), authoritative for history, doctrine, and missions; Emory Stevens Bucke (ed.), The History of American Methodism, 3 vol. (1964), comprehensive and authoritative; Rupert Davies, Methodism, 2nd rev. ed. (1985), a general survey, chiefly from the British point of view; Umphrey Lee and William Warren Sweet, A Short History of Methodism (1956), concerned mainly with American Methodism; V.H.H. Green, The Young Mr. Wesley (1961, reissued 1963), a critical study of Wesley's Oxford days; Martin Schmidt, John Wesley: A Theological Biography, 2 vol. in 3 (196273; originally published in German, 2 vol., 195366); Richard P. Heitzenrater, The Elusive Mr. Wesley, 2 vol. (1984), with material by Wesley and by his contemporaries and biographers; A.C. Outler (ed.), The Works of John Wesley, vol. 14 (198487), a collection of his sermons; Colin W. Williams, John Wesley's Theology Today (1960, reissued 1969), a systematic exposition; Rupert Davies, What Methodists Believe, 2nd ed. (1988), Methodist beliefs in their ecumenical setting; Gerald F. Moede, The Office of Bishop in Methodism (1965), a history of constitutional developments in American Methodism; Wade C. Barclay, History of Methodist Missions, 4 vol. (194973), about American overseas missions; John Kent, The Age of Disunity (1966), on division and reunion in British Methodism; Bernard Semmel, The Methodist Revolution (1973), the social, economic, and political effect of Methodism on Britain; John M. Moore, The Long Road to Methodist Union (1943), on the reunion of American Methodism; and John Munsey Turner, Conflict and Reconciliation: Studies in Methodism and Ecumenism in England, 17401982 (1985). See also Methodist Church (Great Britain), The Methodist Service Book (1975), and Hymns and Psalms (1983), worship in British Methodism. Aspects of the church's history are discussed in Methodist History (quarterly). The Rev. Rupert E. Davies