Catalyst Publications
Publications by Category
James C. Taylor, in A New Porcine History of Philosophy and Religion (Abingdon, 1992), depicts a United Methodist pig going out to explain to the world what the word “united” signifies. The pig is carrying a sign that reads “United Methodis…
Nov/01/2012
I had the privilege of writing a book with two friends and colleagues — Jeannine Brown is a biblical scholar, Carla Dahl is a social scientist, and I am a Christian social ethicist — that sought to explore and model an interdisciplinary con…
Apr/01/2012
Recent research demonstrates that there is a connection between human nature, which rests somewhere between egoism and altruism, and accountability groups, which have the potential to engender generosity and altruism. John Wesley, in partic…
Apr/01/2012
Recent years have witnessed another wave of the old Calvinist versus Arminian controversy that has waxed and waned at least since Luther’s debate with Erasmus in the 1520s. (Excuse the anachronism, but the controversy over free will predate…
Apr/01/2012
In the preceding contribution to “Consider Wesley,” we explored several key quotations from John Wesley that point us to what it means to be “Wesleyan.” This essay will examine how some contemporary Wesley scholars have described the heart …
Apr/01/2012
When Albert Schweitzer's famous retrospect of critical scholarship on Jesus was translated into English as The Quest of the Historical Jesus (Macmillan, 1910), two issues dominated his work as well as then-contemporary scholarship: Jesus' s…
Mar/01/2012
Perhaps the most important thing I want my students to recognize about Christian theology is that it matters for Christian life, but we frequently bump up against the supposed divide between the academic work of theology and the things Chri…
Mar/01/2012
The Cry of Dereliction: Two (or More) Understandings
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Many devout Christians take these words – words from the lips of Jesus himself – as nothing less than a scream of total desperation, and…
Mar/01/2012
What does it mean to be “Wesleyan”? As with any branch of Christianity, there is no simple answer. Like “Lutheran” or “Reformed,” “Wesleyan” denotes a rich tradition of beliefs, practices, and spirituality, an ethos more suitable to indwell…
Mar/01/2012
My first book, Political Evangelism, written back in the early 1970s, was a plea for evangelical Christians to get involved in public life. Folks who were not around then might find it difficult to believe that a book like that was necessar…
Feb/01/2012
We have all heard that the word gospel means “good news.” What we may not fully appreciate are the layers of good news in the NT — the rich, multiple nuances and dimensions the word “gospel” took on in the decades when the books of the NT w…
Feb/01/2012
“Monasticism, I learned, is not about achieving some sort of individual or communal piety. It is about helping the church be the church” (Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove).
A respected teacher and theologian, invested in issues of justice for t…
Feb/01/2012
Getting Involved
News & Events
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A Foundation for Theological Education (AFTE) John Wesley Fellowships have been awarded to three doctoral stud…
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Announcing that 2026 John Wesley Fellowship Scholarship Applications are now being accepted. Please see the at…
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JWF and Friends of AFTE, we look forward to you joining us Thursday-Sunday, January 15-18, 2026, for the AFTE …
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Twenty John Wesley Fellows, spouses, and friends were able to experience a trip of a lifetime. The travel itin…
"The John Wesley Fellowship provides not only financial support, it is an extraordinary community of Christian scholars — and friends."