I approached this project with a mixture of anticipation and anxiety: anticipation because John Tyson is a distinguished American scholar, who has written extensively on the early history of the Wesleys’ Methodism, and anxiety because I wondered what might be meant and intended by a ‘relevant history’ of Methodism. Most historians believe that their discipline will offer wisdom and insights to the contemporary world, but most will also be aware that the quest for ‘relevance’ can lead to anachronistic readings that fail to respect the uniqueness and specificity of each historical context.
In a moving preface to the first volume, reviewed in Wesley and Methodist Studies 16/1, Professor Tyson explains that he was inspired to plan a two-part history of Methodism by a sense of the crises engulfing our world and the controversies dividing the Methodist Church (principally, but perhaps not exclusively, the United Methodist Church). Turning to the past...
