The papers and response of this session explore how ministries and writings of John and Charles Wesley have been received in the Wesleyan/Methodist traditions and beyond. In considering how the Wesleys have been received in different parts of the world and different denominations and how different traditions, Pan-Methodists and Non-Methodists, have interpreted and employed the Wesleys' practical theology. Presenters have been encouraged to use multiple disciplinary and methodological approaches to this topic and provide global perspectives, including postcolonial and anti-colonial emphases.
This session is linked to our unit’s session on “Methodism before the Wesleys,” which explores examples of Methodism in the global history of the church before the eighteenth century, even if no direct genealogical connection can be drawn.
The enduring legacy of Wesleyan principles and theology within the Black Church tradition and Womanist Theology in particular, is not often named and celebrated. The connection of the budding Methodist church in the United States at the same time African American Folk Religion was established are paralleled. The Great Awakening in the United States with its Methodist and Baptist roots saw numerous African Americans adherents. Germane to the descendants of Africans was the Wesleyan understanding of acts of mercy and personal piety, along with a diversity in scriptural interpretation that have been guiding practical theological values for the Black Church traditions. As Womanist Theology and Theological ethics took form and continues throughout different waves, this Pan-Methodist employment can be seen in the tenets of womanist principles and scholarship that undergird the field to this day.
This paper investigates the Methodist Student Movement (MSM), a significant yet often overlooked chapter in Methodist history, which replicated the original Wesleyan movement’s zeal for social holiness. Emerging in the late 1930s, the MSM mobilized young Methodists through innovative campus ministry, leadership development, and social activism. By understanding the historical context and legacies of the MSM, this research seeks to identify how students received Wesleyan theology and formation and activated it into advocacy for the racial integration of The Methodist Church.
After almost a century of division, the closing decades of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century saw the gradual achievement of ‘home reunion’ in British Methodism, as sundered denominations came together in the Methodist Union of 1932. The legend and legacy of the Wesley brothers mattered to all the branches of divided Methodism, but the journey to reunion showed how differently the Wesleys were received and understood by the negotiating groups. This paper will explore the theology, narratives, pedagogy, and practices of the Methodist denominations, using the journey towards and on from the 1932 Union as a case study for the reception history of the Wesleys.
Justo Gonzalez launched the first volumes of the Spanish translation of the Works of John Wesley into Spanish in October of 1997—more than one hundred years since the arrival of Methodism in Latin America. Early Methodist missionaries had evangelized, planted churches, social ministries, educational institutions and trained native-born pastors without access to the founder’s writings in the vernacular. This paper examines three main questions: 1) What were the theological sources consulted by Latin American Methodism prior to the translation of Las Obras into Spanish? 2) Now a quarter of century has passed since the launching of Las Obras and this paper assesses the reception. How has the availability of Wesley’s writings impacted seminary training for Methodist pastors? 3) The paper concludes with unanswered questions and future opportunities for Methodist Studies in the Spanish-speaking world.