Religion, gender, and industry
Subtitle: exploring church and Methodism in a local setting
By: edited by Geordan Hammond, Peter S. Forsaith ; foreword by D. Bruce Hindmarsh
Publisher: Pickwick Publications
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Eugene, Or
Language: eng
Number of pages: 238
ISBN-13: 9781608996421
Subjects: Doctrines; Congresses; Methodism; History
Description: How did the emerging centers of industrial activity interact with the places in which they sprung up? this can be seen in microcosm in one small area of the English midlands: the parish of Madeley, Shropshire, in which was the "birthplace of the industrial revolution," Coalbrookdale. Here, the evangelical Methodist clergyman John Fletcher ministered between 1760 and 1785, among a population including Catholics and Quakers as well people indifferent to religion. Then, for nearly sixty years after his death, two women, Fletcher's widow and later her protégé, had virtual charge of the parish, which became one of the last examples of Methodism remaining within the Church of England. Through examining this specific locality, these essays engage particularly with areas of broader significance, including: Methodism's roots and growth in relation to the Church of England, religion and gender in eighteenth-century Britain, and religion and emerging industrial society. The last decade has seen substantial growth in studies of John and Mary Fletcher, early Methodism, and its relationship to the Church of England. In addition to furthering knowledge of Madeley parish and its relation to larger themes in eighteenth-century Britain, the impact of the Fletchers in nineteenth-century American Methodism is examined.
Notes: The contributions in this volume were originally presented at a conference in Shropshire in 2009.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction / Geordan Hammond, Peter S. Forsaith; title: Religion, gender, and industry in the eighteenth century : models and approaches / Jeremy Gregory; title: John Fletcher's parishioners : reflections on industrial revolution and evangelical revival in the Severn Gorge / Barrie Trinder; title: John Fletcher's silent bishop : Lord James Beaucleck of Hereford / William Gibson; title: Church and chapel : Methodism as church extension / David R. Wilson; title: John Fletcher's links with mystical Methodists and Swedenborgians / Peter James Lineham; title: "Adoring the Hoy Trinity in unity" :  John Fletcher's doxological trinitarianism / Kenneth M. Loyer; title: Women, work, and worship in the Trefeca family 1752-1773 / Eryn M. White; title: Mothers in Christ : Mary Fletcher and the women of early Methodism / Brett C. McInelly; title: Support groups for Methodist women preachers 1803-1851 / John H. Lenton; title: "Oh that the mantle may rest on me!" : the ministry of Mary Tooth / Carol Blessing; title: Holding tightly to "the promise of the Father" : Phoebe Palmer and the legacy of the Fletchers of Madeley in mid-nineteeth-century Methodism / Harold E. Raser; title: John Fletcher as the theologian of early American Methodism / Lawrence W. Wood; title: The long Fletcher incumbency : a personal view of the context and continuity / Peter S. Forsaith.