Francis Asbury shaped the religious landscape of early America more decisively than any other person. As the first bishop of the Methodist Church in America, Asbury attempted to visit all of his preachers every year, crisscrossing most of the territory east of the Mississippi River on horseback. In this biography, Darius L. Salter gives us a candid view of Asbury's personal life and public ministry. Book jacket.

English-born Francis Asbury was one of the most important religious leaders in American history. Asbury single-handedly guided the creation of the American Methodist church, which became the largest Protestant denomination in nineteenth-century America, and laid the foundation of the Holiness and Pentecostal movements that flourish today. John Wigger has written the definitive biography of Asbury and, by extension, a revealing interpretation of the early years of the Methodist movement in America. Asbury emerges here as not merely an influential religious leader, but a fascinating character, who lived an extraordinary life. His cultural sensitivity was matched only by his ability to organize. His life of prayer and voluntary poverty were legendary, as was his generosity to the poor. He had a remarkable ability to connect with ordinary people, and he met with thousands of them as he crisscrossed the nation, riding more than one hundred and thirty thousand miles between his arrival in America in 1771 and his death in 1816. Indeed Wigger notes that Asbury was more recognized face-to-face than any other American of his day, including Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

In this manifesto of sorts, Bishop Emilio Alvarez introduces the phenomenon of Pentecostals returning to the ancient, creedal Christian faith, and extends the project of paleo-orthodox ressourcement to include orthodox expressions within Pentecostalism, particularly in his own Afro-Latino Pentecostal movement.

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Francis Asbury (August 20, 1745 – March 31, 1816) was one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. As a young man English-born Francis Asbury traveled to America after being asked by John Wesley. During his 45-year ministry in America he devoted his life to ministry, traveling on horseback or by carriage thousands of miles to faithfully deliver sermons to those living on the frontier. Bishop Asbury's tireless leadership helped spread Methodism in America. He was the single greatest person responsible for establishing the Methodist church in America. He also launched several schools during his lifetime. His journal also left a lasting legacy and is valuable to scholars for its account of frontier society, as well as giving insights into his personal life and ministry. When Asbury arrived in America he climbed on the back of his horse and started riding and preaching the gospel. He never stopped riding and preaching across the land of America until the day he died. He never owned or even rented a house. Day and night, through rain or snow, he said, “I’ll never stop”. He continued saying, "No one will ever know my struggles, I am weary in body and mind”. He also said “All my earthly goods are reduced down to what I can fit in my saddle bags." One of the typical prayers he would say, even on his way to America, was “Lord, we are in thy hands and in thy work. Thou knowest what is best of us and for thy work; whether plenty or poverty. The hearts of all men are in thy hands. If it is best for us and for thy church that we should be cramped and straitened, let the people’s hands and hearts be closed: If it is better for us; for the church,—and more to thy glory that we should abound in the comforts of life; do thou dispose the hearts of those we serve to give accordingly: and may we learn to be content whether we abound, or suffer need” Within the first 17 days of being in the colonies, he had preached in Philadelphia and New York. During the first year he was Mr. Wesley’s assistant and preached in 25 different settlements. When the American War of Independence broke out in 1776, he was the only Methodist minister to remain in America. In 1784, John Wesley named Asbury and Thomas Coke as co-superintendents of the work in America. This marked the beginning of the "Methodist Episcopal Church of the USA". For the next 32 years, Asbury led all the Methodists in America. His manner of life and his ceaseless activities throughout his long and distinguished ecclesiastical career were unmatched. He rose at five every morning to read the Bible, and preached almost every day and many times he delivered more than two or three sermons a day. It was said of him that he was “one of the wisest and most farseeing men of his day”. Like Wesley, Asbury preached in myriad places: courthouses, public houses, tobacco houses, fields, public squares, wherever a crowd assembled to hear him. For the remainder of his life he rode an average of 6,000 miles each year, preaching virtually every day and conducting meetings and conferences. Under his direction, the church grew from 1,200 to 214,000 members and ordained 700 preachers. Among the men he ordained was Richard Allen in Philadelphia, the first black minister in the United States. He lived in an exciting time in American history; Asbury was reported to be an extraordinary preacher. What more need be said of him after he had finished his course, having kept the faith, than was said of La Tour d'Auvergne, the warrior of Breton, fallen in battle, when his name was called and some comrade in arms who held him in loving remembrance, responded, 'Dead on the field'? In this powerful and impressive biography, Ezra Tipple tells of the self-sacrificing life’s journey of Francis Asbury, the Prophet of the Long Road, who spared nothing in his zeal to bring the gospel to America.

From the moment that Francis Asbury's foot touched ground in Philadelphia from England in 1771, the American colonies were never the same -- nor was the Englishman himself. Sent by John Wesley, Asbury was America's first circuit-rider, covering 5,000 to 6,000 miles a year, spreading the gospel and daring death from Georgia to Quebec. Because of his incessant travels before the advent of photography, Asbury's face became the most recognized on the continent. His face was better known than the faces of such contemporaries as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. He became so well known that he would receive mail from England addressed simply: "Bishop Asbury, America." Chased by savage Indians, hunted by ravaging wolves, and stalked by highwaymen, on he rode. Fighting pleurisy, arthritis and other ailments that were sometimes so disabling he could neither stand to preach nor kneel to pray. On he rode, preaching against slavery 70 years before the Civil War, and against intemperance 100 years before abolition became an issue. On he rode. Written by longtime journalist, Mark Alan Leslie, "Midnight Rider for the Morningstar" captures and describes the perils, challenges and dedication that punctuated the life of this man whose powerful preaching attracted thousands at a time, spurring an increase in Methodist Church membership from a mere 600 to 214,000 by the time of his death in 1816. He helped create five colleges and numerous schools.

Does our available evidence show that some particular religion is correct? It seems unlikely, given the great diversity of religious - and non-religious - views of the world. But if no religious beliefs can be shown true on the evidence, can it be right to make a religious commitment? Should people make 'leaps of faith'? Or would we all be better off avoiding commitments that outrun our evidence? And, if leaps of faith can be acceptable, how do we tell the difference between goodand bad ones - between sound religion and dogmatic ideology or fundamentalist fanaticism? Believing by Faith offers answers to these questions, inspired by a famous attempt to justify faith made by William James in 1896. In doing so, it engages critically with much recent discussion in the philosophyof religion, and, especially, the epistemology of religious belief.