202 - Le Méthodisme

Le Méthodisme
By Claude-Jean Bertrand
Paris, Librairie Armand Colin, 1971. 416 pp. 13.80 Fr. francs.

This fascinating yet scholarly paperback is an excellent introduction to Methodism in an important series of "Anglo-American Studies" sponsored by Paul Bacquet, professor at the Sorbonne. Its author, Claude-Jean Bertrand, lectures at the Nanterre campus of the University of Paris and by means of concise introductions and critical and narrative connective tissue has made of an anthology of documents an illuminating story of the origins, the English and American developments, the strengths, and the weaknesses of Methodism.

What should make it particularly attractive to American readers is the fact that one hundred pages of the work are devoted to the spread of Methodism in America, with separate chapters on frontier Methodism, Methodism and slavery, Methodism in the gilded age, and Methodism in the twentieth century.

It includes the founding father, John Wesley himself, studied in depth by both devotee and critic, with a recognition that he was no errant preacher but a superb organizer of his fellowships into a church. It is not afraid to be downright in its expression of disagreement, considering the cultural effects of Methodism to be disappointing, with the exception of Charles Wesley, in many ways "the least Methodist of the Methodists." Yet it does not neglect the social impact of Methodism. Incidentally, it is erroneous in affirming that Kingswood School limits its scholars to the sons of British Methodist ministers and that the school was a failure. Nor does it recognize sufficiently the great cultural impact of such "Methodist" universities in the United States as Duke, Vanderbilt, and Southern Methodist.

These criticisms are, however, only flies in amber. I am astonished by the vast amount of accurate and documented information Bertrand has packed into this volume. Here I can learn the names of the various sects or movements that have divided Methodism or have been reunited into the mainstream. Here are statistical tables illustrating the historical growth of Methodism in England, the United States, and the world, not to mention a valuable diagram demonstrating the subtlety and strength of Methodist organization. Its bibliographies, supplied at the end of each chapter, further add to the value of the study. The original French edition will be invaluable to scholars, but this handy volume should be made avail-

203 - Le Méthodisme

able to undergraduates for courses in history and religion, to ministers, and to lively church members of the Catholic and Protestant churches in America. It is gratifying to see the role of America in religion recognized in Paris.

And the reviewer is so tired of historical writing about denominations that is either pussy-footed or tigerish that he welcomes an approach that is as factual as possible but avoids the sanctoral and saccharine treatment.

Horton Davies
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey