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Taking Heaven By Storm Summary

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Taking Heaven by Storm is John Wiggers attempt at explaining the rise of early Methodism the changes the early Methodist brought unto early America. In Wiggers acknowledgement he states that “This study is about the dynamics of early Methodist growth in America (1).” And continued later on in in the acknowledgement saying “It had a profound impact of the development of American culture and society, such that its impact can still be felt today” I believe those are bold words to state that early Methodism created such an impact that we can still feel them today. Wiggers opens with sharing statistics on Methodist growth, showing us that between 1770 and 1820 Methodism grew from 1,000 to 250,000 (2). However he quickly follows up stating that because strict …show more content…

While Methodism did grow quickly in hearers it was not growing in adherents as quickly, it showed that Methodism could draw a crowd but it could not bring the people into followers as easily. When it comes to the power and zeal of the Methodist, I believe Wigger did a good job at showing how the Methodist did take Heaven by Storm through the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through the services. However, I disagree with the fact that Wigger believes that it was due to the war. I believe that the early Methodist adherents were genuinely seeking out the Lord and that it was brought the power to the early Methodist services. Finally when it comes to slavery I found the early Methodist to be semi-shallow on their beliefs. Instead of being counter-cultural the Methodist tend to have the same beliefs of the region they were in. Overall while I found Taking Heaven by Storm a great read to see the accounts of the early Christians I believe it did not succeed in the author’s goal of showing the impact the early Methodist had on our world

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