Here’s a review in First Things of a book about the most important figure in American Methodism, Francis Asbury. According to the author of the review, the book describes Asbury’s important role in the shaping of American democracy and identity.
He’s certainly shaped American Methodist ministry: among other things, we Methodist clergy are itinerant (and some still have “circuits”) because of his legacy. When his circuit-riding preachers complained to him that they couldn’t afford to support a family on their preacher’s salary, he said, “Good! You shouldn’t get married!”
I’ll forgive him for that.
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