Description
Book SynopsisThis book is the first critical biography of William Taylor, a nineteenth-century American missionary who worked on six continents. Following Taylor's global odyssey, the volume maps the contours of the Methodist missionary tradition and illumines key historical foundations of contemporary world Christianity. A work of social history that places a leading Methodist missionary in the foreground, this narrative illustrates distinctive aspects and tensions within Methodist missions such as the importance of doctrines like universal atonement and entire sanctification, a deeply pragmatic orientation rooted in God's providence, an embrace of both entrepreneurial initiatives and networked connection, and the use of revivalism for missionary outreach and leadership development. A Virginia native, Taylor became a Methodist preacher and missionary in California. This volume provides an important narrative account of Taylor's career as an itinerant revivalist and popular author, in which he tour
Trade ReviewMethodism’s rise to globalism in the nineteenth century is a progenitor of Pentecostalism’s worldwide expansion in the twentieth century, and no single figure is more central to the former than the rugged, revivalist missionary, William Taylor. Part independent actor and part Methodist connectional super-hero, Taylor relentlessly traveled the methodist, imperial, and transportation networks of the world in search of converts. Tzan tells Taylor’s controversial story of transcontinental mission and revivalism with unprecedented thoroughness and clarity, and successfully locates his extraordinary life in a bewildering range of national and international contexts. -- David N. Hempton, Harvard Divinity School
Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1 Birth and New Birth Chapter 2 California and Bust Chapter 3 Dominions of the Divine Sovereign Chapter 4 An “Evangelical Sherman” Crosses the Seas Chapter 5 The “Flaming Torch” Burns Conclusion Bibliography About the Author
