Books published by Abingdon Press

The whispers of faith, hope, and ethical direction that flow out of the New Testament materials have always taken their fleshly shape in light of the context in which African Americans have found themselves. Blount analyzes the differences between the first century context, which prompted the biblical writers to reflect ethically upon their faith statements as they did, and the present reality of African Americans in the United States, which motivates their Christian leaders to reflect upon these same statements in such radically different ways.

This resource helps laypersons encounter Jesus and live as his disciples. Jesus is sought as healer, comforter, friend, justifier, sanctifier, liberator, and seeker of justice. 6 sessions; includes leader's guide.

How do politics govern the plot and motivate the characters of the book of Daniel? By revealing a complex pattern of religious/political dynamics not found in other more superficial studies of Daniel, the author of this study provides an essential alternative to standard historical-critical interpretations of this key Old Testament book.

This inspiring and practical book has three parts. Part 1 explores how Jesus came to grips with the shame and humiliation he faced in his own life and how we can imitate his manner of handling shame. Part 2 focuses on how Jesus dealt with the shame that others brought to him and the implications this has for how we can overcome shame by internalizing and reenacting Jesus' stories in our lives. Part 3 explores the parables of Jesus and their implications for helping us live lives grounded in nonshame-based values.

Keck shows how the church is suffering from malaise brought on by oversecularization in aspects of church life including worship, theology, ethos, and communication. This penetrating clarion call to renewal cuts through the conventional ideological labels of "liberal" and "conservative." Keck argues with passion that mainline churches today must neither pretend to be culturally triumphant nor whimper in fear. Rather, the church has grounds to be confident about its proper nature and mission. Keck envisions a renewed church that has recovered a sense of what is basic to its nature and purpose--restoring the praise of God to the center of worship.

In short, anecdotal chapters, the author explains how to diagnose a crisis (public, congregational, and personal) and offers six homiletical strategies for creating sermons when speaking during a crisis.

Contents: Meet John Wesley; A Tale of Two Villages; A Nursery Epic; Student and Missionary; A Prayer Meeting and What Came of It; The Very Soul That Over England Flamed; How They Sang a New Day into Britain; Men of Mighty Stature; Methodism Crosses the Atlantic; The Birth of a Church; The Afterglow; The End of the Long Trail; Methodism in the New Republic; Methodism's Man on Horseback; Camp-Meeting Days; The Winning of the West; The Missionary Spirit; Methodist Breaks and Fractures; Southern Methodism; Through the Civil War and Beyond; A Spiritual Forty-Niner; The Tale of the Years in Many Lands; Forming a World Parish; High Hours in a Church's History; The Battlefields of Reform; The Unification of American Methodism; and Methodism Since World War I.

Many preachers are aware of the presence of children in Sunday morning worship and wish to include them effectively in worship, but have a hard time figuring out how to do so. Preachers who are unhappy with children's sermons in general and all the books of printed children's sermons in particular are looking for a theologically and educationally sound approach to preaching to congregations that include children. This practical guide offers preachers a variety of ideas and helps for making any sermon one that is suitable for both children and adults. The author includes an introductory chapter on the importance of children's participation in worship during their elementary school years as part of their faith development. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how children "listen" to a sermon and the importance of planning for children in preparing sermons.

Charles Wesley is widely remembered as a significant hymn-writer, especially among Methodists, but he is not often regarded either as a major poet or as an important theologian. He quite often takes second place to his more famous elder brother, John, and frequently disappears in the face of John's role as leader of "the people called Methodists." This volume attempts to rectify these unfortunate misconceptions by demonstrating that Charles Wesley is a figure of primary literary significance in the history of English religious poetry. It also seeks to show that Charles Wesley was a theologian of considerable depth and creativity, and to place his work in the context of a variety of church traditions. The essays in this volume originated in papers presented to the Charles Wesley Publication Colloquium, held at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, NJ, in the fall of 1989.

Autobiographical journals of Thomas Coke, an important figure to both American and Methodist history.In these journals Thomas Coke gives contemporaneous detailed impressions of late-18th century North America from his nine visits and four Caribbean tours. Using the 1816 edition of the journals as a base, Vickers compares it to earlier editions and, where available, to the manuscript journal, noting any variations.

Hell Without Fire has been nominated in the Creative Nonfiction Historical Division category of the 39th Annual Georgia Author of the Year Awards. Abingdon Press would like to congratulate Henry Whelchel on this honor. Conversion is one of the most significant motifs in American church history. From the First and Second Great Awakenings to early twentieth century Pentecostal revivals and contemporary Evangelical movements, conversion in all its extravagant forms is important to the story of religion in America. L. Henry Whelchel takes up this motif of conversion as it relates particularly to enslaved Africans and Black Americans. He explains the role of conversion in the complex interaction between blacks and whites in America. Beginning with the differences between European and African forms of slavery and the importance of the motif of conversion to white legitimization of the Atlantic slave trade, Whelchel describes the process of slave conversion as one in which slaves were separated from African religion and culture. He counters the myth that Africans had no history and that African religion was entirely effaced in its American context. He demonstrates the contradictory relationship between Afro-American and Euro-American religion: on the one hand whites prohibited demonstrations of African religion and on the other hand they embraced and adopted these demonstrations of religion in transformed modes with their revivalist Christianity. According to Whelchel, "as African religion and culture were exposed to western Christianity," there was forged "a new Afro-American religion." Whelchel's exposure of the contradiction between the propaganda used to defend slavery and the actual, historical circumstances of slaves in America is most compelling in his treatment of the role of education as an adjunct to conversion. He highlights the emergence of laws prohibiting the teaching of slaves and he explores the emergence of the plantation missions--sponsored by mainline southern denominations--to implement an oral method of religious training. He continues with the role of conversion in post-emancipation relations between black and white religion in America, in both the North and South. Finally, Whelchel chronicles the rise of the CME and the distinctions between the AME and CME, concluding with the seating of the first black CME bishops.