True Christianity
True Christianity

Author: J Russell Frazier

Publisher: James Clarke & Company

Published: 2014-09-25

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 0227902602

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John William Fletcher (1729-1785) was a seminal theologian during the early Methodist movement and in the Church of England in the eighteenth century. Best known for the Checks to Antinomianism, he established a theology of history to defend the church against the encroachment of antinomianism as a polemic against hyper-Calvinism. Fletcher believed that the hyper-Calvinist system of divine fiat and finished salvation did not take seriously enough either the activity of God in salvation history or an individual believer's personal progress in salvation. Fletcher made the doctrine of accommodation a unifying principle of his theological system and further developed the doctrine of divine accommodation into a theology of ministry. As God accommodated divine revelation to the frailties of human beings, Fletcher argued that ministers of the gospel must accommodate the gospel to their hearers in order to gain a hearing for the gospel without losing the goal of true Christianity. 'True Christianity' contains insights from Fletcher, who devoted himself, according to Wesley, to being 'an altogether Christian'.

Religion, Gender, and Industry
Religion, Gender, and Industry

Author: Peter S Forsaith

Publisher: James Clarke & Company

Published: 2012-05-31

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 0227900138

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Questions have been raised in recent decades about the place of women in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in church and society during a time of vast industrial change. These topics are broad, but can be seen in microcosm in one small area of the English Midlands: the parish of Madeley, Shropshire, in which Coalbrookdale became synonymous with the industrial age. Here, the evangelical Methodist clergyman John Fletcher (1729-1785) ministered between 1760 and 1785, among a population including Roman Catholics and Quakers, as well as people indifferent to religion. For nearly sixty years after his death, two women, Fletcher's widow and later her protege, had virtual charge of the parish, which became one of the last examples of Methodism within the Church of England. Through examining this specific locality, with its potential for religious tension and great social significance, this multidisciplinary collection of essays engages with developing areas of research. In addition to furthering knowledge of Madeley parish and its relation to larger themes of religion, gender and industry in eighteenth-century Britain, the impact of the Fletchers in nineteenth-century American Methodism is examined.