This 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 toured the eastern United States, the British Isles, and Australasia. Taylor’s participation in the South African revival made him an evangelical celebrity. The author also follows Taylor’s important visits to India and South America, where he initiated new Methodist missions in those contexts and pioneered the concept of “tentmaking” missions. In 1884, Taylor was elected missionary bishop of Africa by his church. By the end of his life, Taylor had recruited or inspired hundreds of Methodists to become foreign missionaries.

Here freshly researched, unprecedented stories regarding modern American thought and religious life show how the scholar Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834) provides ongoing influence still. They describe his influence on universal rights, American religious life, theology, philosophy, history, psychology, interpretation of texts, community formation, and interpersonal dialogue. Schleiermacher is an Einstein-like innovator in all these areas and more. This work contrasts chiefly "evangelical liberal" figures with others (between circa 1835 and the 1920s). It also looks ahead to several careers extended well into the twentieth century and offers numerous characterizations of Schleiermacher's thought. In six tightly organized parts, fourteen expert historians chronologically discuss the following: (1) Methodist leaders (1766-1924); (2) Stuart, Bushnell, Nevin, and Hodge; (3) Restorationists, Transcendentalists, women leaders, Schaff, and Rauschenbusch; (4) Clarke, Mullins, Carus, and Bowne; (5) Dewey, Royce, Ames, Knudson, Brown, Fosdick, Cross, Jones, and Thurman--within contemporary contexts. Unexpectedly, John Dewey lies at the epicenter of the narrative, and Harry Emerson Fosdick and Howard Thurman bring it to its climax. Recently, evidence displays a broadening influence advancing rapidly. The sixth part of the book surveys modern historiography, Schleiermacher on history and comparative method and on psychology as a basic scientific and philosophical field. That section also provides a critical survey of histories of modern theology and offers concluding questions and answers. The three editors contribute twenty of the thirty-one chapters.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.