Catalyst Publications
Publications by Category
In 2001 at the University of Cambridge, I met Thomas McElwain, a Muslim anthropologist from a Scandinavian university. A native West Virginian, he had gone to Russia as a Baptist missionary where he converted to Islam as a result of friends…
Apr/01/2010
More than one observer of contemporary American society has argued that Americans increasingly self-select to live in communities with persons of similar lifestyles and values. For politics, this means that friends and neighbors increasingl…
Apr/01/2010
Imagine a typical counseling session where a counselee talks with a counselor about a particular life dilemma. If I were a fly on the wall, I could probably tell what theoretical counseling orientation (e.g., cognitive-behavioral, psychodyn…
Mar/01/2010
At 12:00 noon on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, the United States inaugurated its first African American as president with great pomp, circumstance, and hope. Those from every corner of the nation looked on in pride at this tangible manifestati…
Mar/01/2010
Eli Stanley Jones was born in Clarksville, Maryland, on January 3, 1884, at the height of the American Holiness Movement. Even though as a Christian Jones was shaped by this movement, his years as a Methodist missionary in India radicalized…
Mar/01/2010
For John Wesley, Scripture was the unique and primary authority for theology. He would appeal to it again and again, and—often drawing on the “primitive church,” Anglican sources, and Christian experience—would argue for his interpretation …
Mar/01/2010
Often today one hears about a host of other gospels that tell us “other stuff” about Jesus. Most of these works come from the second or third century (cf. F. Lapham’s Introduction to the New Testament Apocrypha [Sheffield Academic Press, 20…
Feb/01/2010
As students of the Gospels universally acknowledge, the kingdom of God was central to the message of Jesus and was also significant for preaching and teaching in the early church. My concern in this essay is to map some recent contributions…
Feb/01/2010
Sometimes on Sunday mornings while sitting in the pew along with all the other nice people, I imagine what would happen if Phoebe Palmer was our preacher for the day. What would the great Methodist mystic, the mother of the nineteenth centu…
Feb/01/2010
It is increasingly common in Protestant circles in America today to decry local churches that are inwardly focused, and often led by maintenance-oriented pastors and laity. Such churches and leaders, it is said, should be outwardly focused,…
Feb/01/2010
Earlier this year, we in the Wesleyan-Methodist church family received an important gift for spiritual and theological formation. This is the Wesley Study Bible (Abingdon, 2009), the result of contributions from scores of Wesleyans from the…
Nov/01/2009
Despite the ressourcement movement in twentieth-century Catholicism, the writings of the Church Fathers remain largely understudied and under appreciated in the majority of Protestant seminaries. The reason for this, I think, lies with the …
Nov/01/2009
Getting Involved
News & Events
-
A Foundation for Theological Education (AFTE) John Wesley Fellowships have been awarded to three doctoral stud…
-
Announcing that 2026 John Wesley Fellowship Scholarship Applications are now being accepted. Please see the at…
-
JWF and Friends of AFTE, we look forward to you joining us Thursday-Sunday, January 15-18, 2026, for the AFTE …
-
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."