"Live while you preach" : the autobiography of Methodist revivalist and abolitionist John Wesley Redfield (1810-1863) / edited by Howard A. Snyder ; foreword by David Bebbington.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Redfield, John Wesley, 1810-1863.

Contributor:

Snyder, Howard A.

Marston Memorial Historical Center.

Series:

Pietist and Wesleyan studies ; no. 17.

Pietist and Wesleyan studies ; 17

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Redfield, John Wesley, 1810-1863.

Redfield, John Wesley.

Methodists--Biography.

Methodists.

Abolitionists--Biography.

Abolitionists.

Evangelists--Biography.

Evangelists.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xxix, 412 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, 2006.

Summary:

John Wesley Redfield, controversial lay evangelist in the Methodist Episcopal (ME) and later Free Methodist churches, was the cofounder of the Free Methodist Church, and in the 1840s and 1850s, he had a broad ministry in the ME Church and beyond. An outsproken abolitionist, he was controversial among Methodist leaders and in the ME press as his revivals typically were marked by powerful emotional manifestations, including dramatic conversions and people being slain in the Spirit.

"Live While You Preach" makes available for the first time Redfield's autobiography, a 425-page handwritten manuscript he wrote shortly before he died. Redfield's manuscript details his early life; conversion; brief stormy marriage and divorce; abolitionist activities; contacts with Phoebe Palmer, one of the founders of the Holiness Movement; his occasional practice of medicine; and remarkable revivals. This book presents Redfield's manuscript in its entirety-with critical and contextual notes-and serves as an important primary source for the study of the Wesleyan Holiness tradition, American Methodism, revivalism, and abolitionism.

Contents:

Biographical Introduction: John Wesley Redfield xxi

I Redfield's Apologia 1

II Birth and Early Call 3

III Redfield Resists the Call to Preach 9

IV Assisting a Methodist Preacher 20

V Rejection of Call; Wanderings 26

VI Redfield's Unfortunate Marriage 31

VII Licensed to Preach 46

VIII Abolitionism: "Proclaim the Jubilee of God" 49

IX Seeking Holiness: "By faith alone" 65

X Evaluating Impressions: "Faith, fancy, intuition" 66

XI New York City: "Unearthly power lifted me" 71

XII "Resolved to make a business of seeking holiness" 80

XIII Phoebe and Walter Palmer: "I feared them" 83

XIV "A remarkable dream fulfilled to the letter" 96

XV "If you want revival, seek holiness" 100

XVI "Led to review my history" 109

XVII Expanding Revival Ministry, 1844-1846 113

XVIII "New fields opening" 120

XIX "Jesus cures both soul and body" 124

XX "Ain't I dying?" 141

XXI Phoebe Palmer: "These strange facts" 144

XXII "Entering the harvest field with all my might" 145

XXIII Continue Stressing Holiness? 150

XXIV The 1846 Middletown, Connecticut, Revival 153

XXV Revival Ministry in the East, 1846-1850 157

XXVI Philadelphia: "Operations next to Pentecostal" 168

XXVII Newburgh Camp Meeting: "Gusts of power" 187

XXVIII Further Revivals 193

XXIX Redfield Meets Fay Purdy 195

XXX Prison Ministry in New York 201

XXXI Ministry in Bridgeport, Connecticut 206

XXXII Revivals in Connecticut 214

XXXIII Summer Camp Meetings 223

XXXIV Encountering Paranormal Phenomena 236

XXXV Return to Syracuse, New York 247

XXXVI Pentecost: God's Ideal Church 262

XXXVII Redfield Visits His Boyhood Home 267

XXXVIII Revival Ministry in Western New York 268

XXXIX Redfield's "Most Splendid Mansion" 274

XL Ministry with B. T. Roberts in Buffalo, 1853 280

XLI The 1854-55 Burlington Revival 286

XLII Redfield's Second Marriage 289

XLIII Ministry in "The West" 296

XLIV Revival in Marengo and Woodstock, Illinois 302

XLV Ministry in Wisconsin 307

XLVI St. Louis, Missouri, 1858-59 311

XLVII Ministry in Illinois; Growing Controversy 332

XLVIII Return to St. Louis, 1860 342

XLIX Redfield's Stroke, Visions, and Decline 344

L Pentecost: God's Ideal for the Church 352

LI Entering into Jesus' Sufferings 354

LII Suffering and the Plan of Salvation 357

LIII Redfield Assesses Early Free Methodism 362

LIV The Bible versus Rationalism and Spiritualism 364

LV Methodism, Slavery, and the Civil War 367

LVI Last Things 371

LVII Final Return to Syracuse 384.

Notes:

"Published in collaboration with the Marston Memorial Historical Center, Indianapolis, Indiana."

Includes bibliographical references (pages [397]-400) and index.

ISBN:

0810852802

OCLC:

62593768

Publisher Number:

9780810852808