Recent Research on B.T. Roberts
and Early Free Methodism
courtesy of the Free Methodist Historical Society Newsletter

Two recent doctoral dissertations on B. T. Roberts and early Free Methodism are worthy of note.

Rick McPeak, who teaches at Greenville College, has completed "Earnest Christianity: The Practical Theology of Benjamin Titus Roberts," a dissertation done at Saint Louis University. McPeak views Roberts through the lens and methodology of practical theology, giving attention to Roberts' "theological vision," his handling of Scripture, and his philosophical foundations.

McPeak concludes that Roberts was concerned to establish a solid theoretical basis for action. While firmly committed to biblical authority, Roberts was open to learning from the natural sciences and human experience as well. McPeak notes, for instance, that Roberts did not believe the six days of creation were literal 24-hour days because he felt that view clashed with the findings of geology.

Primary source material for Rick has been Roberts' books and the hundreds of editorials he wrote for The Earnest Christian, which Rick covers in a comprehensive 134-page bibliography.

Douglas Cullum at Roberts Wesleyan College and Northeastern Seminary has researched early Free Methodism for his dissertation at Drew University, "Rhythms of Life, Contours of Faith: Church, Home, and Society Among Early Free Methodists." Doug writes, "My research seeks to display, describe, and locate the religious beliefs and practices of the early Free Methodist Church (c. 1858-1893) in relation to the larger currents of nineteenth-century religious history and American Methodism." He makes extensive use of the B. T. Roberts Family Papers and relevant periodical literature.

Doug earlier published an article on a related theme, "From Simplicity to Multiplicity: Sunday Worship Among Free Methodists," in The Sunday Service of the Methodists: Twentieth-Century Worship in Worldwide Methodism, edited by Karen B. Westerfield Tucker (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1996).