METHODIST HISTORY October 2010 Volume XLIX Number 1
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METHODIST HISTORY October 2010 Volume XLIX Number 1 THE CHILD’S ANTI-SLAVERY BOOK (1859) EDITORIAL BOARD Morris Davis Drew University Paula Gilbert Duke University A. V. Huff Furman University Cornish Rogers Claremont School of Theology Ian Straker Howard University Douglas Strong Seattle Pacific University Anne Streaty Wimberly Interdenominational Theological Center Stephen Yale Pacific School of Religion Charles Yrigoyen, Jr. Lancaster Theological Seminary Assistant Editors Michelle Merkel-Brunskill Christopher Rodkey Nancy E. Topolewski Book Review Editor Christopher J. Anderson Cover: Illustration entitled, “A Slave Father Sold Away from his Family,” from The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book created by the Sunday-School Union of the MEC and published in 1859. See article by Cynthia M. Rogers (4). METHODIST HISTORY (ISSN 0026-1238) is published quarterly for $25.00 per year to addresses in the U.S. by the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church, 36 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ 07940. Printed in the U.S.A. Back issues are available. Second-class postage paid at Madison, NJ. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to METH- ODIST HISTORY, P.O. Box 127, Madison, NJ 07940 or email [email protected]. METHODIST HISTORY Robert J. Williams, Editor VOLUME XLIX OCTOBER 2010 NUMBER 1 CONTENTS Contributors . 2 Editor’s Note . 3 The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book and Other Sunday School Books of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1827-1880 by Cynthia M. Rogers . 4 Heralding the Call of Populism: Kansas Methodists and the 1896 Presidential Election by Darin A. Tuck . 20 Methodist Heretic: Thomas Altizer and the Death of God at Emory University by Christopher Demuth Rodkey. 37 Mission in Methodist Perspective: Some Personal Deliberations by Helmut Nausner. 51 Book Reviews . 58 Heritage Landmarks of The United Methodist Church . 64 Copyright 2010, General Commission on Archives and History, The United Methodist Church Methodist History is included in Religious Index One: Periodicals, Religious and Theological Abstracts, Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life ATLA Religion Database Manuscripts submitted for publication and all other correspondence should be addressed to Editor: METHODIST HISTORY, P.O. Box 127, Madison, NJ 07940. Prospective authors are advised to write for guidleines or visit www.gcah.org. CONTRIBUTORS CYNTHIA M. ROGERS recently received her Master of Theological Studies degree summa cum laude from Drew Theological School. Her cap- stone project, an exhibit entitled “Instructing Children & Families: Sunday School Books of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1827-1880” at the United Methodist Archives & History Center at Drew, was the basis for the article in this issue. Rogers holds a Masters of Education degree in Social Studies Education from the University of Virginia and received her B.A., summa cum laude, from Baylor University. DARIN A. TUCK is a doctoral student in the department of history at the University of Missouri. CHRISTOPHER D. RODKEY earned the Ph.D. degree from Drew University and now serves as pastor of Zion “Goshert’s” United Church of Christ, Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and teaches at Lebanon Valley College, Annville, Pennsylvania. He is author of the forthcoming book, The Synaptic Gospel. HELMUT NAUSNER received the Distinguished Service Award from the General Commission on Archives and History in August, 2010. He stud- ied at the University of Vienna and the Methodist Theological Seminary in Frankfurt, Germany. Now retired, he served churches in Austria and was ap- pointed to serve as conference superintendent in Austria. He has been active in ecumenical work and served on the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry and the Ministry Study Commission (1984-1992). 2 Methodist History, 49:1 (October 2010) EDITOR’S NOTE The next World Methodist Conference will be held in Durban, South Africa, August 4-9, 2011. This will be preceded by a meeting of the Council, August 1-3. The World Methodist Historical Society is planning a program for Thursday afternoon, August 4, which will be one among a variety of seminars to be offered. Though still tentative, plans are being made for an informative bus tour starting with lunch and ending with dinner on the Inanda Heritage Route with visits to Methodist Churches and lectures on South African Methodist history. The seminar will be limited to 45 people and registration will be required. Expenses for the bus, meals, and speakers will be covered by the World Methodist Historical Society. Once plans are finalized, information will be available through www.gcah.org; click on the World Methodist Historical Society link. Information on the Conference can be accessed through www.worldmethodistcouncil.org. The summer of 2011 will also be marked by the Seventh Historical Convocation, which will be July 21-24, in Oklahoma City. The theme will be “United Methodism in a Land of Many Cultures: Native American and Latino History.” The Convocation will begin on Thursday evening with the presentation of the General Commission on Archives and History’s Distinguished Service Award to Dr. Kenneth E. Rowe, long-time Methodist librarian at Drew University and a leading scholar and bibliographer on Methodist history. The Convocation will include lectures and visits to Latino and Native American churches. The meetings will be at Oklahoma City University and will be hosted by the Oklahoma Conference and the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference. The Convocation will include the annual meeting of the Historical Society of The United Methodist Church and will be preceded by the annual meeting of the General Commission on Archives and History. Registration will be available beginning in January. Four of the Jurisdictional Commissions on Archives and History in the United States will meet in the spring and summer: Western Jurisdiction: April 28-May 1, in Phoenix, AZ Northeastern Jurisdiction: May 3-5, in New Windsor, MD North Central Jurisdiction: July 11-14, in Winona, MN Southeastern Jurisdiction Historical Society: June 28-July 1, in Pineville, KY. It is a privilege to work with those dedicated to making known the rich heritage of our church. ROBERT J. WILLIAMS 3 Methodist History, 49:1 (October 2010) The Child’s ANTI-SLAVERY BOOK AND OTHER SUNDAY SCHOOL BOOKS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 827-8802 CYNTHIA M. ROGERS On April 21, 1859, John B. McFerrin, editor of the Publishing House of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in Nashville, declared in the Nash- ville Christian Advocate that certain works published for the Methodist Epis- copal Church would “never see the light” in Southern church libraries. 3 “In- stance, The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book, from the press a few weeks since—a work we regard as far worse than Uncle Tom’s Cabin . Such publications are rank with abolition sentiments, and cannot be sold by our agency . .”4 Indeed the high emotions surrounding the split over slavery at General Conference in 1844, as well as a commitment to the development of Sun- day School library books, led the General Conference of 1848 of The Meth- odist Episcopal Church to order the Book Concern to publish “antislavery tracts,”5 which soon included The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book. This effort distinguished the Methodist Episcopal Sunday School Union (SSU) from the older and larger American Sunday School Union (ASSU), which refused to take a stand on slavery in its publications for children.6 An examination of The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book, in addition to several other books published for the libraries attached to Methodist Sunday Schools, offers a window into the religious, social, and educational priorities of the early Methodists. The plots, characters, and themes of the books reveal how concepts about child- hood and children’s literature changed over the course of the nineteenth cen- tury. And the settings for much of this Sunday School literature reflect the broader social themes that resounded across the nineteenth century. 1 The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book: containing a few words about American Slave Children; and stories of slave-life (New York: Carlton & Porter for the Sunday School Union of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1859). 2 This paper draws from the exhibit, “Instructing Children & Families: Sunday School Books of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1827-1880,” curated by Cynthia M. Rogers, at the United Methodist Archives & History Center, Drew University, Madison, NJ, in 2008. The Methodist Library at Drew University has become a repository for a large collection of books published for the Methodist Sunday School Union during this period. 3 James Penn Pilkington, The Methodist Publishing House, vol. 1 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1968), 390-301. 4 Pilkington, 391. 5 Pilkington, 391. 6 Anne M. Boylan, Sunday School: The Formation of an American Institution 1790-1880 (New Haven: Yale UP, 1988), 80. 4 The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book 5 One of the key figures in the early development of the Methodist Sun- day School and its publications was Daniel Parish Kidder (1815-1891), who served as Corresponding Secretary of the Sunday School Union and general editor of Sunday School books and tracts from 1844-1856. Kidder is widely credited with improving the Methodist Sunday School and its teaching and for dramatically increasing the number and selection of books available to Sunday School libraries. Kidder later served as Professor of Practical The- ology at Drew Seminary from 1871-1881, and his papers, which offer rich details of that early Sunday School period, are part of the Methodist Collec- tion at Drew University. An overview of the Sunday School movement and the emergence of the Methodist Sunday School Union with its commitment to the development of libraries for children and families will provide the backdrop for the dis- cussion of several select Sunday School books (1827-1880), including The Child’s Anti-Slavery Book. Sunday School The concept of Sunday School, along with the development of books and teaching materials, began in England.