In The Supernatural and the Circuit Riders, Rimi Xhemajli shows how a small but passionate movement grew and shook the religious world through astonishing signs and wonders. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, early American Methodist preachers, known as circuit riders, were appointed to evangelize the American frontier by presenting an experiential gospel: one that featured extraordinary phenomena that originated from God’s Spirit. In employing this evangelistic strategy of the gospel message fueled by supernatural displays, Methodism rapidly expanded. Despite beginning with only ten official circuit riders in the early 1770s, by the early 1830s, circuit riders had multiplied and caused Methodism to become the largest American denomination of its day. In investigating the significance of the supernatural in the circuit rider ministry, Xhemajli provides a new historical perspective through his eye-opening demonstration of the correlation between the supernatural and the explosive membership growth of early American Methodism, which fueled the Second Great Awakening. In doing so, he also prompts the consideration of the relevance and reproduction of such acts in the American church today.

A response to the prominent Methodist historian David Hempton’s call to analyse women’s experience within Methodism, this book is the first to deal with British Methodist women preachers over the entire nineteenth century. The author covers women preachers in Wesley’s lifetime, the reason why some Methodist sects allowed women to preach and others did not, and the experience of Bible Christian and Primitive Methodist female evangelists before 1850. She also describes the many other ways in which women supported their chapel communities. The book also includes discussion of the careers of mid-century women revivalists, the opportunities home and foreign missions offered for female evangelism, the emergence of deaconess evangelists and Sisters of the People in late century, and the brief revival of female itinerancy among the Bible Christians.

Rev. Paul F. McCleary is a graduate of Olivet Nazarene University, Bourbonnais, Illinois, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, and Northwestern University, both in Evanston, Illinois. He has an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from MacMurray College, Jacksonville, Illinois. Paul served student appointments in Illinois Great Rivers Conference of the United Methodist Church before going to Bolivia as a missionary, where he served as district superintendent and executive secretary of the Annual Conference. He has served denominational posts as executive secretary of the Structure Study Commission of the General Conference, assistant general secretary for Latin America of the Board of Global Ministries, and as associate general secretary of the General Council on Ministries. He also served as executive director of Church World Service of the National Council of Churches of Christ. For several years, he served with nongovernmental organizations, such as Save the Children, Christian Children’s Fund, and Feed the Children. He served two terms as president of the NGO Committee to UNICEF and chair of the Board of InterAction. He served as a consultant to the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. McCleary served for eight years as an advisor to the Bishops’ Task Force on Children and Poverty of the United Methodist Church. McCleary is married to Rachel P. and has four children, seven grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. They currently reside in Tempe, Arizona.

The story of Methodism is much richer and more expansive than John Wesley's sermons and Charles Wesley's hymns. In this book, Methodist theologian Jeffrey W. Barbeau provides a brief and helpful introduction to the history of Methodism—from the time of the Wesleys, through developments in North America, to its diverse and global communion today—as well as its primary beliefs and practices.