How a rural English metalworker transformed American religion

What was it like to be an American Methodist when Francis Asbury was alive?

The saintly German leader who influenced and frustrated Asbury

Jennie Fowler Willing, like many nineteenth-century Methodist women, set out to change the church and the world

Without Francis Asbury, the American landscape would look very different

Methodism’s beginning in America was many things I had not expected

Asbury knew how to relieve tense situations with humor

Methodists have collected thousands of documents, objects, records, and artifacts

Asbury never aspired to be a professional theologian

Revival elements people experienced in 1801 had been part of Methodist life for several decades

How Methodism transformed in America from a small immigrant sect to a leading Protestant denomination

Matthew Simpson’s journey began very much like Asbury’s, but it did not end that way

Methodism’s continent-wide conflagration spread through pages printed by these publishing pioneers

A Methodist pastor who falls prey to the world, the flesh, and the devil

Here are the stories of some other Methodists who helped settle—and then transform—a continent

Asbury warned Methodists against settling down like other churches

Christian History talked with historian Russell Richey about who Methodists have been and how Asbury made them that way

Where should you go to understand Methodists? Here are some recommendations from CH editorial staff and this issue’s authors