Methodism

William J. Abraham is the Albert Cook Outler Professor of Wesley Studies, and an Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He grew up in Methodism in Ireland, knows Methodism intimately in its diverse forms within the USA, and has had extensive experience of Methodism in Europe, Central America, and Malaysia. As a scholar he has worked as a philosophical and systematic theologian in conversation with the Methodist tradition from Wesley to the present. Aside from various papers on various historical aspects of Methodist theology, he has co-edited with James E. Kirby, The Oxford Handbook of Methodist Studies (OUP, 2011) , and written a popular introduction to the theology of John Wesley, Wesley for Armchair Theologians (Westminster John Knox Press, 2005).

• Introduction1: John Wesley and the origins of Methodism2: Supporting background music3: The people called methodists4: The message of Methodism5: The search for credible alternatives6: The practices of Methodism7: The impact of Methodism8: The decline of Methodism9: The future prospects of MethodismReferencesFurther ReadingIndex

This is very much more than an introduction to Methodism. Using considerable scholarship and a keen theological imagination, Abraham sets Methodism within a broader Christian framework. The result is an honest assessment of the development of Methodism; a penetrating assessment of contemporary Methodist churches; and suggestions for how a faithful Methodist tradition might live in apostolic faithfulness.