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The Wesleyan Rooted Traditions (Part 2)

27 Nov By Dwight Leave a Comment

In Part 2 of this series, I want to introduce you to some important theological works produced by authors within the Wesleyan and related traditions. Here is where I get to allow myself some wiggle room. What I call “The Wesleyan Rooted Traditions” has by now become so vast and varied; not all authors and their theologies are actually rooted in Wesleyanism. This is actually part of how amazing this tradition has become. It ranges in form from Liberal Protestant to fundamentalist evangelical, from Pentecostal to Charismatic, and from old-time Holiness to moderate evangelical. However, to understand this interpretation and reinterpretation of Wesleyan thought, and the records it left behind; it is helpful to have some theology under your belt.

If you read between the lines of the books I am listing below, you will be able to address questions within your family history. Some sample questions linking theology with genealogy would be as follows: Why did my ancestors become Methodist when they were originally Church of Ireland? Why did my ancestors leave the Methodist Church and get involved in the Holiness movement? Why is the Salvation Army considered a Holiness denomination? My ancestors started out as Holiness, but became Pentecostals – what is the difference? If you’re writing a family history, these are important questions which will help bring your story to life!

The books below reflect some of the standard theological works which can help you trace your ancestor thinking whether for one or several generations. Be aware that once you understand the evolution of Wesleyanism in its various forms, you may need to search through the records of more than one denomination for your ancestors!

Wesleyan-Methodist: These works reflect authors from the United Methodist Church, the Methodist Church in Ireland and the Methodist Church in Britain. Ted A. Campbell, Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials (2nd ed. 2011); Richard Clutterbuck, Handing on Christ: Recovering the Gift of Christian Doctrine (2009); Walter Klaiber and Manfred Marquardt. Living Grace: An Outline of United Methodist Theology (2001); Stokes, Mack B. Stokes, Major United Methodist Beliefs (1998); Angela Shier-Jones, Word in Progress: Methodist Doing Theology (2009).

Wesleyan-Holiness: All of the following works come from Church of the Nazarene authors. The denominational press Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City is the world’s largest publisher of Holiness books. Paul Culbertson and H. Orton Wiley, Introduction to Christian Doctrine (Reprint 1946); H. Ray. Dunning, Grace, Faith, and Holiness: A Wesleyan Systematic Theology (2000); J. Kenneth Grider, A Wesleyan-Holiness Theology(2000);

Samuel M. Powell, Discovering Our Christian Faith: An Introduction to Theology (2008); H. Orton Wiley, Christian Theology (3 vols. Reprint. 1940).

Holiness-Pentecostal: To fully appreciate the variety within Pentecostalism, I am suggesting works by Pentecostal authors from churches rooted and not rooted in Wesleyanism, and one Charismatic work. French L. Arrington, Christian Doctrine (3 vols. 1994), Position: Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee); Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave, Foundations of Pentecostal Theology (2008), Position: Foursquare Church; Stanley M. Horton, Systematic Theology (1994), Position: Assemblies of God; J. Rodman Williams, Renewal Theology: Systematic Theology from a Charismatic Perspective – Three Volumes in One (1996), Position: Charismatic.

If you would like to receive our daily blog, e-mail us at: customerservice@thejourneyhomegenealogy.com

Professional Links

Dwight Radford, visit me at: www.thejourneyhomegenealogy.com

Leland Meitzler Publisher of genealogy products and books: www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com

Irish Genealogical Society International: www.irishgenealogical.org  I write articles for their journal The Septs

Mike O’Laughlin author of Irish family history books: www.irishroots.com

Donna Moughty’s Genealogy Resources: www.moughty.com  I invite you to join Donna’s blog as she explains the world of Irish and United States family history.

Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, MFA, CG professional book editing: www.nonfictionHelp.com  

Come enjoy the December research tour: www.SaltLakeChristmasTour.com I am one of the consultant’s at this wonderful event

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Church records, Research, Theology

The Wesleyan Rooted Traditions (Part 1)

26 Nov By Dwight Leave a Comment

John Wesley (1703-91) taken from www.wikipedia.org

The Wesleyan-Methodist, Wesleyan-Holiness and Holiness-Pentecostal traditions are rooted in the insights of John Wesley (1703-91). These blogs will focus on understanding this tradition. Part 1 will concentrate on the historical background. Part 2 will introduce theological works. Part 3 will focus on John Wesley’s distinctive doctrine of sanctification or “Christian Perfection.”  

The Wesleyan tradition heavily involved the Irish and their descendants worldwide. This not only includes Irish Protestants, but also Irish Catholics. Many Irish Catholic immigrants either converted to some form of Wesleyanism or were at least married by its ministers (think the Methodist Church in New York City). Wesleyanism in its Methodist form provided neutral ground for a wide variety of people. In many towns it became the “community church.” For this reason alone, if I don’t find a Catholic family listed in local parish records; always search the Methodist registers next.

Wesleyanism arrived in North America in 1760, by way of Irish Methodists. Built within it was a respect for higher education, especially for women, and a social consciousness, even if members didn’t always live up to those values. An example would be when the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States would split into three denominations (1843-1845) over slavery.

By the 1840s, many members sought a return to more holiness and activism by emphasizing the Wesleyan doctrine of  “Christian Perfection.” This would emerge as a trans-denominational and inter-racial Wesleyan-Holiness movement. It grew rapidly in the United States, spreading to Ontario in the 1840s, England by the 1860s and firmly established in Ireland by the 1880s. Methodists were hostile towards the Holiness movement.

Holiness denominations include the Church of the Nazarene, Church of God (Anderson, Indiana), Salvation Army, Christian Missionary and Alliance, Free Methodist Church, Wesleyan Church, Church of God (Holiness).

Wesleyan-Holiness theology was taken further with speaking in tongues, prophecy and faith healing. This became known as the Holiness-Pentecostal movement. It originally arose in several places among Holiness people as an inter-racial revivalist and

Azusa Street Mission, Los Angeles, California. Taken from www.wikipedia.org

enthusiastic outpouring of the spiritual gifts. The recognized, but not only, beginnings of modern-day Pentecostalism was the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, California (1906). This revival began spreading the beliefs worldwide separating it from a hostile Wesleyan-Holiness tradition.

If Pentecostalism is combined with its sister Charismatic movement, it constitutes the second largest branch of Christianity with over 500 million believers. Older Pentecostal churches include; Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), Assemblies of God, Church of God in Christ, Foursquare Church, Pentecostal Holiness Church. However, not all denominations, such as the Assemblies of God, are rooted in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement.

For historical reading, I would recommend the following reference works.

Wesleyan-Methodist: William J. Abraham, The Oxford Handbook of Methodist Studies (2011); Dudley Levistone Cooney, The Methodist in Ireland: A Short History (2001); Richard P. Heitzenrater, Wesley and the People Called Methodists (1993); David Hempton, Methodism: Empire of the Spirit (2006); Charles Yrigoven, Jr., and Susan E. Warrick, eds. Historical Dictionary of Methodism (2005).

Wesleyan-Holiness: Floyd Cunningham, ed., Our Watchword and Song: The Centennial History of the Church of the Nazarene (2009); William Kostlevy, ed. Historical Dictionary of the Holiness Movement (2009); Major John G. Merritt, Historical Dictionary of the Salvation Army (2006).

Holiness-Pentecostal: Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (2004); Stanley M. Burgess and Eduard M. Van Der Maas, eds. The New International Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements (2002); Harvey Cox, Fire from Heaven (1995); James Robinson, Pentecostal Origins: Early Pentecostalism in Ireland in the Context of the British Isles (2007);  Randall J. Stephens, The Fire Spreads: Holiness and Pentecostalism in the American South (2010); Vinson Synan, Century of the Holy Spirit: 100 Years of Pentecostal and Charismatic Renewal, 1901-2001 (2001); Vinson Synan, The Holiness-Pentecostal Tradition (1971); Grant Wacker, Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture (2003).

If you would like to receive our daily blog, e-mail us at: customerservice@thejourneyhomegenealogy.com

Professional Links

Dwight Radford, visit me at: www.thejourneyhomegenealogy.com

Leland Meitzler Publisher of genealogy products and books: www.FamilyRootsPublishing.com

Irish Genealogical Society International: www.irishgenealogical.org  I write articles for their journal The Septs

Mike O’Laughlin author of Irish family history books: www.irishroots.com

Donna Moughty’s Genealogy Resources: www.moughty.com  I invite you to join Donna’s blog as she explains the world of Irish and United States family history.

Sharon DeBartolo Carmack, MFA, CG professional book editing: www.nonfictionHelp.com  

Come enjoy the December research tour: www.SaltLakeChristmasTour.com I am one of the consultant’s at this wonderful event

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Church records, Historical, Theology

Now What was the Seventh Commandment?: Lessons in Perception

4 Nov By Dwight Leave a Comment

Perspective is a wondrous thing. It can affect your research without you even knowing it. I was consulting with two friends on their family history. They are Roman Catholics. We were looking at some old New England Congregational registers on microfilm, and became fascinated by the disciplinary registers.

In these registers were a lot of men and women being disciplined in the 1750s for “breaking the Seventh Commandment.” Now I’ve done my share of sleeping in Sunday School but I was pretty sure the Seventh of the Ten Commandments was about not committing adultery. To me that made these Congregational registers a candidate for a juicy upcoming blog.

My friends swore the Seventh was about not stealing. I vaguely remembered that Catholics break out the Ten Commandments differently than Protestants, although the verses are the same. So we had a dilemma. Either the parish was fully of adulterers or thieves.

We pulled out the smart phones, Googled the “Ten Commandments,” and yes, Catholics and Protestants split them up differently. Catholics traditionally see the Seventh Commandment stealing, and Protestants traditionally see it as adultery. I won by the simple fact we were at Protestant records!

The moral of this strange tale is perspective. In genealogy, we need to always be careful to look at the context of the records we are exploring. In this case, a Protestant disciplinary record meant the parish had an adultery problem as opposed to a five-finger discount problem!

In case you may have slept through Sunday School, here’s the rundown of the Ten Commandments which appear as Exodus 20: 3-17. To be totally honest, I had to cheat off the chart on this subject as found on page 110 of The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV) with the Apocrypha: An Ecumenical Study Bible (fourth edition):

The Catholic Study Bible (NAB revised edition)

First: You shall not have other gods beside me. You shall not make for yourself an idol.

Second: You shall not invoke the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.

Third: Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy…

Fourth: Honor your father and your mother…

Fifth: You shall not kill

Sixth: You shall not commit adultery

Seventh: You shall not steal.

Eighth: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Ninth: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house.

Ten: You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife… or anything that belongs to your neighbor

The English Standard Version Study Bible (ESV)

First: You shall have no other gods before me.

Second: You shall not make for yourself a carved image…

Third: You shall not take the name of the lord your God in vain…

Fourth: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Fifth: Honor your father and your mother…

Sixth: You shall not murder.

Seventh: You shall not commit adultery.

Eighth: You shall not steal.

Ninth: You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

Tenth: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife…or anything that is your neighbor’s.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Church records, Strategies, Theology

My Ancestor was an American Spiritualist (Part 4)

3 Nov By Dwight Leave a Comment

In this last installment, I focus on the nineteenth century records to document Spiritualists. There are several repositories that have significant collections; mainly periodicals and directories. Most important are the American Antiquarian Society: http://americanantiquarian.org and the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov  Secondary collections are at Andover-Harvard University Theological Library: www.hds.harvard.edu/library ; New York Public Library: www.nypl.org ; Boston Public Library: www.bpl.org ; Van Pelt Library: www.library.upenn.edu/vanpelt ; Bancroft Library: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu ; and the Cecil H. Green Library: http://library.stanford.edu  

It wasn’t until 1893 that the National Spiritualist Association of Churches (NSAC): www.nsac.org  was founded. The NSAC as the first successful organization to bound together a variety of Spiritualist congregations. They remain the largest such organization. Spiritualist congregations are free to develop their own rituals and practices. There has currently been no study to know what records congregations kept. The NSAC can be contacted concerning member congregations.

Directories and newspapers will list lecturers, mediums and Spiritualist missionaries. Important directories include: Uriah Clark’s Spiritual Register for 1857, 1858-9, 1859, 1860, 1861; and Andrew Jackson Davis’ The Progressive Annual for 1862, 1863, 1864. One of the most extensive and genealogically important direcgtory is James M. Peebles and Hudson Tuttle, The Year-Book of Spiritualism for 1871. This documents Spiritualists before the massive exodus from the movement in favor of the Theosophical Society and Christian Science.

Spiritualist newspapers published advertisements, convention news, directories, local news and letters. Ann Braude’s News From the Spirit World: A Checklist of American Spiritualist Periodicals, 1848-1900 (1989) lists 214 periodicals, by name, time period, geographic, and by publisher.   

The American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR): www.aspr.com is an investigative organization. Their studies have exposed fraudulent mediums as well as investigated what they saw as legitimate claims. Not all investigations were published in their Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research. The library houses the correspondences and case files for all investigations. 

It is hoped that my blogs will alert researchers to the potential of Spiritualist records as a valid genealogical resource.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Church records, Historical, Libraries and Archives, Theology

My Ancestor was an American Spiritualist (Part 3)

2 Nov By Dwight Leave a Comment

Part 3 in this series focuses on how to identify a nineteenth century Spiritualist. It is a largely unexplored topic from a genealogical perspective. A Spiritualist could range from a professional medium, to those who quietly attend séances, or privately consulted the planchette (forerunner of the Ouija board). Some clues exist which may help.

If an ancestor had an interest in Swedenborgianism, Shakers, Transcendentalism, Universalism, dissent Quakerism, Theosophy, Christian Science and New Thought, they may have also have been involved in Spiritualism. The first five contributed the earliest members to Spiritualism (1848-1870s) while the latter three drew their earliest membership from a declining Spiritualism (1870s and 1880s). By the 1860s, many Universalist congregations and a large percentage of dissident Quakers had merged into Spiritualism.  

Some post-Millerite Adventists looked at biblical texts from a spiritualized position to explain why Christ did not come in the clouds on 22 October 1844. By spiritualizing the message, they could say that Christ came in their hearts. Hundreds of these spiritualizers came to seek emotional and spiritual stability after the “Great Disappointment” of 1844 in the Shaker communities. These same post-Millerite spiritualizers, due to Shaker celibacy, would transition into Spiritualism after 1848, and then into Sabbatarian Adventism (Seventh-day Adventist Church).

Spiritualist tombstones often record, rather than death, the date the deceased “entered the Summerland” which is the Spiritualist heaven. Other tombstone terminology includes “awakened to the newness of life the Spirit World,” “Passed to the Spirit Land” or “Translated.” Another clue on tombstones is that many Spiritualists still observe “Spiritualist Time” which dates the calendar year from 1848.

If an ancestor lived or associated with a community with Spiritualist ties, then you may have a connection. This would include the many Spiritualist towns and seasonal camps, former Fourierist communes and other experimental communities. American towns such as Auburn, New York were hot beds for Spiritualism.

All of these are valuable clues from which can help you determine if an ancestor had an interest in Spiritualism. At that point the records can be examined.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Church records, Historical, Research, Theology

My Ancestor was an American Spiritualist (Part 2)

1 Nov By Dwight Leave a Comment

Part 2 of this series explores the female medium as a profession. It’s easy to forget in nineteenth century America, women could not be public speakers, and were denied most basic rights accepted today.

In 1848 when news of the Fox sisters began to travel, the first women’s rights convention was also being held also in Upstate New York. The two currents converged. While not all feminist were Spiritualist, all Spiritualists were feminist. By combining the two, female trance mediums found a public arena from which they could deliver trance messages to a mixed audience of receptive men and women. There were several types of nineteenth century mediums: 

Medical Medium: These mediums would see inside a patient’s body and prescribe non-evasive healing.  

Mental Medium: These mediums use their own spirit eyes and spirit ears to see and hear things clairvoyantly. 

Normal Medium: During the 1850s and 1860s, male mediums traveled the lecture circuit addressing their audiences in a “normal” state outside the trance state.  

Physical Medium: These mediums demonstrated in phenomenon such as spirit rappings, table tipping, slate writings (on chalk boards) also called independent writing, direct voice sounds, flashes or balls of light, the materialization and dematerialization of objects, levitation, transfiguration, spirit photography, spirit painting, spirit cabinets, spirit music, and the materialization of a spirit being.  

Trance Medium: The trance mediums enter an alternate state of consciousness wherein there is access to the knowledge of the spirits. They functioned as oracles of spiritual truth.  

Test Medium: In physical mediumship, tests were often implemented to assure that the medium was not creating the phenomenon. These test mediums could be blindfolded, gagged, tied up or locked in cabinets while the spirit manifestation occurred around them. 

In the 1870s physical mediums began to replace trance medium. As the profession became more entertainment than religious; it lost its empowerment for women. The American Society for Psychical Research: www.aspr.com  investigated the claims of mediums and publicly exposed frauds. The newly formed Theosophical Society and Christian Science began catching the waves of dissatisfied Spiritualists who no longer saw mediumship as embodying their vision for a better world and social reform.

For more information on the role of mediums and Spiritualism in general, I would recommend some locally published or reprinted books authored by Spiritualists. One such bookshop is at the Morris Pratt Institute: www.morrispratt.org  

B. F. Austin, The A. B. C. of Spiritualism (1920); Mark A. Barwise, A Preface to Spiritualism (1937); Peggy Barnes, Psychic Facts (2002); A. Campbell Holms, The Fundamental Facts of Spiritualism (1927); Rev. Lena Barnes Jeffs, The Laws of Spirit Mediumship (1999); Margaret L. King, Mediumship and Its Phases (2002); Hudson Tuttle, Mediumship and Its Laws: Its Conditions and Cultivation (1904, 1969).

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Church records, Dictionaries, Heritage, Historical, Theology

My Ancestor was an American Spiritualist (Part 1)

31 Oct By Dwight Leave a Comment

Arising near Rochester, New York in 1848, Spiritualism became a global phenomenon, and the Irish were involved in the obsession like millions of other Americans. It crested as an American cultural power in the 1870s; arose again in the 1880s; during World War I and again in the 1920s. Spiritualists were at the forefront of Women’s Suffrage, health reform, Temperance Movement and Abolitionist Movement.

This first of four blogs will focus on the history of the movement, the second on the female medium as a profession, and the third on identifying a Spiritualist, and the fourth on the records left behind. Why four blogs on Spiritualism? The main reason is that this is a VERY underdeveloped area in genealogy, so four archived blogs will help many researchers. Second is that it’s Halloween! Spiritualism continues to this day as a religion. However, for the purposes of this blog series, only nineteenth century Spiritualism will be addressed.

Spiritualism produced one of the most colorful chapters in American religious history. Boston and New York City became major centers with Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Providence, Rochester and St. Louis as secondary centers.    

Spiritualism was birthed when Swedenborgianism, Mesmerism and Fourierism converged into the Harmonialist philosophy of Andrew Jackson Davis (1826-1910). He put his ideas into a workable religion with the arrival of the teenage Fox sisters of Hydesville, New York. On 31 March 1848, Margaret Fox (1833-1893) and Kate Fox (1836-1892) announced that they were communicating with spirits via rappings on a bedroom wall. The rappings were said to be from a man who had been murdered in the house years before. An alphabet was devised by investigators so that the rappings could be translated into words. The Fox sisters began to demonstrate their abilities on stage, reaching celebrity status.

Spiritualism arose during a period when death and disease were everywhere and people were looking for proof of life after dead rather than faith. Many found their proofs through Spiritualism as they felt it could be demonstrated.

Spiritualism would provide leaders in most reform movements; especially Women’s Suffrage. Some historians would state that one of Spiritualism’s most important contributions was that along with Liberal Protestantism helped dismantle Calvinist culture strongly embedded in American life.

For further reading into the history of American Spiritualism, I would recommend the following standard works: Ann Braude, Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women’s Rights in Nineteenth-Century America (2001); Michael F. Brown, The Channeling Zone: American Spirituality in an Anxious Age (1997); John B. Buescher, The Other Side of Salvation: Spiritualism and the Nineteenth-Century Religious Experience (2004); Brent E. Carroll, Spiritualism in Antebellum America (1997); Robert S. Cox, Body and Soul: A Sympathetic History of American Spiritualism (2003); Nancy Rubin Stuart, The Reluctant Spiritualist: The Life of Maggie Fox (2005); Barbara Weisberg, Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism (2004).

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Church records, Historical, Theology

The Community of Christ and its Records (Part 2)

25 Oct By Dwight Leave a Comment

This second part focuses on the records generated by the Community of Christ (RLDS). Although this church was not officially reorganized until 1860, it is important to remember its roots and membership extend back to 1830. The period 1844-1860 in Latter Day Saint history was one of redefining identity for many Mormons.

Susan Easton Black’s monumental six volume work Early Members of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (1993) is a major resource to begin your research. Just be aware there are some errors in this work. There are many Irish born in these biographical sketches.

The majority of the church’s records are held at the Community of Christ Archives in Independence, Missouri.  Large segments of the collection are on microfilm at the Family History Library: www.familysearch.org in Salt Lake City.

Some of the major collections include “Archival Holdings” which include original documents by individuals such as letters, licenses, journals, diaries and autobiographical material; Branch Records, known as “Local Jurisdictional Record Books,: and are the records of the individual congregations; “Certificate of Child Blessing Card File,” an alphabetical card index to priesthood blessings given to newborn children or young children; “Deceased Membership Files,” cover information from 1860; “Early Church Membership Records (1852-1908),” which details religious information such as baptismal,

confirmation, ordinations, transfers and removals, and expellings; “Early Reorganization Minutes (1851-1872)”; “RLDS Membership Record Book (1872-1905),” containing the branch records of membership, blessing of children, ordinations and excommunications; “Saints’ Herald,” the official periodical of the church, dating from 1860; “Saints’ Advocate (1878-1886),” documents the RLDS missionary activities among the Utah Church.

For further reference in understanding the historic positions of the church, I recommend the following works: F. Henry Edwards, Our Legacy of Faith: A Brief History of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (1991); Richard P. Howard, The Church Through the Years. 2 vols. (1992-1993); Peter A. Judd and A. Bruce Lindgren. An Introduction to the Saints Church (1976); Alan D. Tyree, ed. Exploring the Faith: A Series of Studies in the Faith of the Church Prepared by a Committee on Basic Beliefs (1987).

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: American Frontier, Church records, Libraries and Archives, Theology

The Community of Christ and its Records (Part 1)

24 Oct By Dwight Leave a Comment

Many Irish-born Latter Day Saints didn’t go West with the main church in 1846. Others did, only to later migrate back to the Mid-West or to California. These Mormons often became associated with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS), now the Community of Christ: www.cofchrist.org (as of 2001). This denomination was organized in 1860. Their roots can be traced to Nauvoo, Illinois prior to 1844 as some Mormons rejected developing esoteric theology such as polygamy, temple rituals, and the plurality of gods. They sought a more practical religion. They would reorganize under Joseph Smith III (1832-1914) as their prophet-president. The lineal descent of the presidency from the founder remained intact until 1996.

Prior to its self-evaluation beginning in the 1960s, members tended to define themselves in opposition to the Utah Mormons. Today, the two churches have a good relationship and work together to preserve historical records. This is a boom for the family historian.

When the founding prophet Joseph Smith was murdered in 1844 many members did not know which of the many prophetic leadership claims to follow. To complicate this was the prophetic claims of James J. Strang (1813-1856) who in 1844 acquired a large membership with the goal of building the Kingdom of God on Beaver Island, Michigan. He was murdered in 1856, and his church scattered. Most of the future leadership of the RLDS Church was one time Strangites.

Others did not continue with the faith. This means scores of North Americans today trace back into a Mormon family during this tumultuous period from 1844-1860.

The church accepts the Bible, Book of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Covenants, with the last revelation added in the 2010. They claim the two traditional Latter Day Saint priesthoods, which blacks were granted in 1865 and women in 1985.

The Community of Christ built a huge temple complex on the portion of the Temple Lot they own. It serves as an educational and worship center dedicated to world peace and reconciliation. The contemporary view is that Zion, with its temple, can be thought of as a place, a condition, and as a process, not one exact location – Independence, Missouri.

Tomorrow’s blog will focus on the records generated by the Community of Christ.

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: American Frontier, Church records, Historical, Theology

Why Were Methodists so Radical?

11 Oct By Dwight Leave a Comment

As tame as the Methodist Church is by modern standards, in the 1700s, it was considered radical and dangerous by many. Yet, it would spread like wildfire, and would emerge as the fourth largest denomination in all of Ireland. The first Methodists  congregations in North America were planted by Irish immigrants.

The chief founder and theologian was John Wesley (1703-91), who with his brother Charles Wesley (1707-88) would gather Bible study groups within the Church of England.  The Methodist Church would not emerge until after John Wesley’s death.

Although the Wesleyans were Arminian (Christ died for all people not just the elect) in their approach to theology, others were more Calvinistic-Methodist. Arminian theology as developed by John Wesley has come to be known as Wesleyan-Arminianism. However, Wesley refined Arminianism with a strong evangelical emphasis on justification by faith. He did departed from Classical Arminianism in the following areas, and this is where the Methodists were considered radical:

Atonement: Wesley sought a relationship between God’s love for people and God’s hatred of sin. To him it was not a legal demand for justice so much as an act of mediated reconciliation.

Possibility of apostasy: Wesley taught Christians could apostatize and lose their salvation. In Wesleyan-Arminianism, it’s not the sin committed that is the grounds for loosing salvation, but it is more related to experiences that are profound and prolonged. Wesley saw two areas in which a person could lose their salvation; unconfessed sin and the actual expression of apostasy. Wesley saw these as not permanent states, but the sinner could return.

Christian perfection: Wesley taught that Christians could attain a state of practical perfection wherein they lack all voluntary sin through the Holy Spirit. This was a state of perfect love and could happen in this life. This has also been termed entire sanctification. Perfect Christians did not mean they no longer violate the will of God, for involuntary transgressions remain. Christians remain subject to temptation and still have a need to pray for forgiveness and holiness. It is not an absolute perfection but a perfection of love. Some see this was Wesley’s greatest theological contribution to evangelicalism. He would outline his theology in A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1777): http://gbgm-umc.org/umhistory/wesley/perfect.html Versions of this doctrine would birth the Wesleyan-Holiness and Pentecostal-Charismatic movement.

The Methodists would prove to be a highly successful evangelical movement in the British Isles. It caught the imaginations of the common person as it called for the individual to experience Jesus personally.

I would suggest the following books to understand Wesleyan-Methodist thought: Richard Clutterbuck, Handing on Christ: Recovering the Gift of Christian Doctrine (2009); Kenneth J. Collins, The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace (2007) and John Wesley: A Theological Journey (2003); Kenneth J. Collins and John H. Tyson, Conversion in the Wesleyan Tradition (2001); Randy L. Maddox, Responsible Grace: John Wesley’s Practical Theology (1994).

Filed Under: Irish Ancestry Tagged With: Church records, Heritage, Theology

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Dwight A. Radford

Dwight A. Radford is a professional family history researcher. Along with his staff they specialize in Ireland, England, Canada, African American, Native American, and United States. Connecting families together through historical documents and then creating a cherished family heirloom published book for generations to enjoy. Full bio…

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