World Mission in the Wesleyan Spirit, eds. Darrell L. Whiteman and Gerald H. Anderson. American Society of Missiology Series, No. 44. Franklin, Tennessee, USA, Providence House Publishers 2009. Pp. vii + 358. $25.95, and Methodists and Their Missionary Societies 1760–1900. By John Pritchard. Ashgate Methodist Studies Series. Surrey, England, Ashgate Publishing Limited 2013. Pp. xxii + 293. $104.95.
Our first volume under review is edited by Darrell L. Whiteman and Gerald H. Anderson, and is composed of 31 distinct chapters that are tightly organized around a unifying theme, very explicit in all essays, of Wesleyan mission. Whiteman and Anderson have herein brought together 29 (in addition to themselves) Wesleyan scholars to illuminate issues in World missions, done in accordance with the Wesleyan ethos. As all of the chapters are unified in theme, they truly read as if written by the same hand. All essays reflect the Wesleyan notion of prevenient grace, the idea that God is ever before various people groups, preparing their paths to receive the gospel of Christ, by revealing something of God’s nature and self.
Due to space constraints I will only be able to highlight a relative few contributions. For example, in chapter two, Dean Flemming offers us a re-reading of Acts 15 that informs the modern church’s task of contextualizing the gospel today. Anderson picks up this highlighting of prevenient grace by noting that it is in the mainstream of historic Christian teaching, is grounded in Scripture, and is also incorporated by other Christian traditions in their own mission theology. Howard A. Snyder notes in his essay that while John Wesley is often noted with respect to his theology, less seldom recognized is the fact that Wesley was fundamentally a theologian of mission, i.e. that his teaching amounted to a missio Dei. Snyder concludes with a summation that characterizes the rest of the book as well: the five central themes in Wesley – the imago Dei, prevenient grace, salvation as healing, the maturing of Christian character, and universal restoration – are all missional in character. I heartily recommend this book for senior-level undergraduate studies or introductory-level graduate studies. Given intent reading, allot can be garnered.
The second title under review herein is written by John Pritchard. He notes that the first meeting of a Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society was in October, 1813. Those who gathered, initially in response to John Wesley’s teaching, and later by his followers and colleagues, gathered into local groups known as societies. As these societies grew in number, they were divided into smaller groups known as classes, which allowed for fellowship and mutual encouragement. This was the pattern naturally adopted when Methodism began to expand beyond Britain. Beyond this initial narrative of how the societies and classes were first formed and grouped, I found little of value within the Pritchard volume. The chapters are not linear in their orientation, Pritchard has no clear (or at least perceptible by me) guiding theme, and the entire volume reads like 16 disparate essays thrown together in order to sell a larger volume. Perhaps this book would be valued more, however, by a strict historian than by a historical theologian like me.
Bradford McCall
Regent University, 1000 Regent University Dr., Virginia Beach, VA, bradfordlmccall@gmail.com