Description
Book SynopsisChurch and Chapel in Industrializing Society: Anglican Ministry and Methodism in Shropshire, 17601785 envelopes a new and provocative revisionist history of Methodism and the Church of England in the eighteenth century, challenging the Church's perception as a varied body with myriad obstacles which it dutifully and substantially confronted (if not always successfully) through the maintenance of an ecclesiastically and theologically rooted pastoral ideal. This model was lived out on the ground' by the parish clergy, many of whom were demonstrably innovative and conscientious in fulfilling their pastoral vocation vis-à-vis the new demands presented by the social, ecclesiastical, political, and economic forces of the day, not least of which was the rise of industrialisation. Contrary to the effete arguments of older cadre church historians, heavily reliant on the nineteenth-century denominational histories and primarily the various forms of Methodism, this book provides a thorou
Trade Review«This book reassesses Fletcher and his ministry thoroughly and persuasively: any student of early Methodism needs to read this for it articulates how 'Methodism' could operate in a local situation and can be put alongside other new work, such as Russell Frazier's on Swiss theological influences on Fletcher, and on Mary Bosanquet/Mrs Fletcher.»
(Peter S. Forsaith, Wesley and Methodist Studies Vol. 10, No. 1, 2018)
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations – Preface – Acknowledgments – Fletcher-Madeley Chronology – List of Abbreviations – Introduction – Madeley in 1760 – Church Services and Patterns of Worship – Church Extension: ‘Chapel’ Ministry and the Societies in Madeley – Tensions in Church and Chapel – Pastoralia – Conflict, Confrontation and Conciliation – Conclusion – Fletcher’s Sermons – Biographical Index – Visiting Preachers in Madeley 1760–1785 – Fletcher’s Works with Various Collected Editions Noted – Calendar of the Correspondence of John Fletcher – Maps – Bibliography – Index.
