A Crown and a Cross

by Goodhead, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9781606086513
• ISBN10: 1606086510
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-09
• Publisher: Wipf & Stock Pub

Summary

This book critically reviews the origins, development, and decline of the Class Meeting. Beginning with an overview of the religious and societal milieu from the sixteenth century, and examining the heritage of John and Charles Wesley, the inheritance John Wesley took from the past is studied. The rise of the Anglican Unitary Societies is considered and Wesley's active work within those societies drawn out. The arrival of the Moravians in London in 1738 to form a group for Germans resident in London influenced many of the Anglican society members, not least the Wesley brothers. These influences are also considered before the Methodist movement, and particularly the Class Meeting are considered in detail.This book is unique in its drawing together the manner of religious association experienced in the Evangelical Revival and aims to show how Methodism was a fusion of pre-existing ideas, formed into a new working model of religious association. Paramount to the success of the early Methodist was the Class Meeting. This book draws on testimony, diary, and journal records to provide first-hand accounts of people's lives being changed through attendance at the Class Meeting and its making possible growth in grace and holiness. In the early period of Methodism the Class Meeting was the crown to Methodist identity. An analysis of the primary aims of this meeting, which gave the Methodist people their distinct characteristics, is followed by a study of the social identity and group processes that occurred when prospective members considered joining the Methodists.The decline of the Class Meeting to 1791 forms the concluding chapters, and, using three classic sociological models-Weber (routinisation), Durkheim (totemism), and Troeltsch (prim

Author Biography

Andrew Goodhead is a British Methodist Minister. He is presently Spiritual Care Lead as St. Christopher's Hospice, Sydenham, London. He has served as a Circuit Minister and Superintendent Minister in Circuits in Circuits in England and Scotland.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	p. vii
Introduction	p. ix
Introductory Comments	p. 3
Religion and Society at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century	p. 5
The Heritage	p. 31
Religious Societies in England from 1678	p. 76
The Fetter Lane Society	p. 101
Introductory Comments	p. 143
The Classes of Methodism	p. 145
Introductory Comments	p. 191
Routinization	p. 201
Totemism	p. 224
The One-Generational Meeting	p. 243
Conclusion	p. 275
Appendices:
The Rules of Anthony Horneck's Savoy Society	p. 289
The Poplar Regulations	p. 291
Samuel Wesley's Rule for the Epworth Society	p. 295
The Rules of the Rev Samuel Walker's Truro Society	p. 298
Articles of the Religious Societies at Truro	p. 303
The Rules of the Fetter Lane Society (A)	p. 306
The Rules of the Fetter Lane Society (B)	p. 309
The Rules of the Fetter Lane Society (C)	p. 312
Religious Societies from John Wesley's Diary	p. 314
The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies	p. 318
Rules of the Band Societies	p. 323
Directions given to the Band Societies	p. 325
Of the right METHOD of meeting CLASSES and BANDS, in the Methodist-Societies	p. 327
Bibliography	p. 329
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