Methodists and their Missionary Societies 1760–1900. By John Pritchard. Ashgate Methodist Studies. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, 2013. xxiii + 293pp. $119.95 cloth.

Abstract

(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Methodists and their Missionary Societies 1760-1900 . By John Pritchard . Ashgate Methodist Studies. Burlington, Vt. : Ashgate Publishing , 2013. xxiii + 293pp. $119.95 cloth.Book Reviews and NotesFor at least a generation, scholars interested in of Methodism in British Isles and United States have been treated to many high quality books that explore this religious movement with sensitivity and depth. Methodism outside North Atlantic world, however, has not benefited from same historiographical focus. As such, Pritchard's concise of British Methodist foreign missions in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is a welcome addition to an open field and will provide a helpful foundation for future scholarship.The bulk of Pritchard's book concerns early Methodist mission efforts and work of Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society (WMMS). He also seeks to include work of other Methodist denominations that joined in Methodist Union of 1932 in his story. British Methodist missions in twentieth century are covered in a companion volume.As author notes in preface, there are detailed accounts of Methodist missions in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, most published about a century ago. These sources are used, with other primary and secondary texts, to inform narrative. While Pritchard casts his own work as a much more concise and less comprehensive history than those earlier works in seeking to cover the same ground from a more distant vantage point, author's intent is actually more ambitious than he admits (xvii). He reframes story of Methodist foreign missions in light of more recent academic scholarship on of Christian missions. Among other objectives, this newer historiography has sought to reclaim importance of indigenous Christians in emergence of new Christian communities, recognizes centrality of missionary women in Protestant missionary movement, and rejects assumptions of European superiority that can pervade source material.Initial chapters detail background and foundations of Methodist missionary enterprise. This background includes brief service of both John and Charles Wesley as Society for Propagation of Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG) missionaries, emergence of Methodist societies outside British Isles through colonial connections and migration, and dedicated, yet impulsive, endeavors of Thomas Coke. The year 1813 marks a transition point as it signaled beginning of new opportunities for Christian missions in India, launch of first auxiliary society to raise funds for missions, and Coke's departure for Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Methodist beginnings in North American and Australasia are briefly summarized up until formation of Methodist Episcopal Church in newly-independent United States and creation of autonomous conferences in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand/Aotearoa in mid-nineteenth century.The primary focus of book, however, is foreign, cross-cultural missions operated by British Methodists. Pritchard introduces this focus with three chapters that explore issues that span multiple contexts. …