Methodism: Empire of the Spirit (review)

At the start of his new book on the rise and global expansion of the Methodist movement, David Hempton writes that "the two things that can be said with certainty about Methodism are that it grew prodigiously . . . and that historians will continue to disagree vigorously about why such growth took place and what were its consequences" (10). Building upon his vigorous work on early British Methodism and popular religion, Hempton's study takes the long view both chronologically and geographically and, unlike most other treatments, provides the reader with a sweeping survey of the impact of John Wesley's movement from an Oxford study circle in the 1730s to the enduring international phenomenon it had become by the late-nineteenth century.¹ As such, Methodism is the best synthesis available on the vast reach of the church and the many elements that went into establishing its popularity. At the same time, it suggests that the social history of religion, including in the early republic, may be approaching a crossroads.

Hempton's book assesses the varied aspects of what he describes as the rise and fall of the Methodist "empire." His best chapters—"Enlightenment and Enthusiasm," "Money and Power," and "Mapping and Mission"—analyze the ideological origins of Methodism and the material means by which the church and its missionary extensions became so large, both in membership and ambition, literally extending into all inhabited continents. Hempton emphasizes the influence of E. P. Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class, especially its extraordinary exposition of the impact of Methodism on English workers in the Age of Revolution. A major and refreshing distinction of this new volume is its recognition that Methodist history is riddled with conflict, both within the movement and between its adherents and opponents. But Hempton draws especially upon the increasingly rich historiography of early American Methodism and evangelicalism—readers of the Journal of the Early Republic will be familiar with works by Nathan O. Hatch, A. Gregory Schneider, Susan Juster, Cynthia Lynn Lyerly, Christine Leigh Heyrman, John H. Wigger, Catherine Brekus, Mark Noll, and me. Hempton concludes that Methodism was a transnational missionary movement of tremendous spiritual power and organizational capacity, that it engaged the attention of an enormous variety of people of all conditions and backgrounds, that it was propelled forward by a vanguard of preachers who made severe sacrifices to bring souls to Christ, that it rose with unprecedented speed, especially in the United States, and that it then sailed too complacently into the twentieth century.

Hempton's main point, however, is harder to pin down. Methodism has many compelling points, but no one single argument. The reason for this clearly does not lie in a lack of erudition. Hempton is an extraordinarily learned scholar and often profound historical observer. Rather, the problem may derive from his all-inclusive but not entirely critical methodology.

Two examples will suffice. First, like many social histories of religion, and especially European religion, Hempton's discussion is driven by the overarching assumption that secularization was widespread, rapid, and inevitable in Europe and the United States after 1900. Yet Hempton's own numbers tell a different story. In brief, the proportion of Methodists within the overall United States population reached its peak between 1920 and 1930, when it stood at 6.5 percent. By comparison, Methodism formed just 3.9 percent of the population in 1830, and in 1860—customarily assumed to be the high water mark of Methodist growth—it had reached 5.7 percent, not only below 1920 but also 1960. The great slide occurred after 1960, and more dramatically in the 1970s and 1980s, a century after Hempton chose to end his book. In Britain and Ireland, the decline began in 1910, but again accelerated after 1960 (212).

There are several explanations for these changes, but what they do not demonstrate is a precipitous downswing of Methodism after 1900; and as Hempton himself emphasizes in his opening chapter, the phenomenal diffusion of Pentecostalism...