This major anthology is another pointer to the fact that Methodist scholarship – despite the recent sad demise of the Epworth Press in the UK – is alive and well. It is also yet another sign, as we were recently reminded by the late Michael Townsend, that ‘Methodist history, theology, ethics and politics have largely ceased to be treated as separate entities’ – not that one would have ever seriously considered there to have been such things as ‘Methodist politics’ or ‘Methodist ethics’. Indeed, the editor himself affirms in the opening paragraph of his introduction that the ‘complex interdisciplinary picture that emerges in these essays is entirely appropriate’. Where The Ashgate research companion differs from earlier anthologies is in the deliberate emphasis given in each chapter to the way in which the author's subject can be explored further. Writers often end their reviews with a comment that a particular book will be ‘a stimulus for further study’, but the contributors to The Ashgate research companion really do provide a range of practical avenues for suggested further investigation, as well as giving a helpful overview of the state of current research. Perhaps unusually for a book of this type, there is a select bibliography which reflects the catholicity of the anthology's subject-matter and authorship, and which should be a useful stepping-stone for further reference.

The Ashgate research companion is divided into four broad sections for convenience, though there is a considerable overlap in their content. The first, ‘Historical context’, consists of four essays tracing the growth of Methodism between 1730 and the present day, though the authors thankfully do not get bogged down in strict chronology. Ted Campbell opens with a useful historiographical survey of Methodism's early years, and Morris Davis gives a particularly helpful series of pointers to an interesting chapter on the years before and after Union. The most interesting contribution, however, is that by Brian Beck, who sets himself the difficult task of giving a critical appraisal of the ‘shifting balances’ of the period since 1939, and asks us to consider the degree to which Methodism can enjoy ‘the stability of being a church and the constant adaptability of being a mission movement’ (p. 83) – with all the inherent contradictions and challenges that such tensions bring.

Part iii (the second section) covers ‘World Methodism’ and consists of seven chapters whose themes range widely – from an informative examination of church statistics by David Jeremy (figures which show Methodism to have a greater percentage of world population than ever, and that one in twenty Chileans is a Methodist, are indeed fascinating) to a short study of Methodism and liberation theology by Jeorg Rieger. David Chapman's essays are always thoughtful and perceptive, and his ‘Methodism, ecumenism and interfaith relations’ leans heavily on his earlier publications.

Inevitably, many readers will be drawn to the third section (part iv), ‘Belief and practice’ – perhaps because the ground covered will be more familiar – and the seven articles here are all both interesting and challenging. Peter Phillips's paper on ‘Methodism and the Bible’ deals with a well-trodden area but poses some interesting questions concerning the way in which the understanding and interpretation of Scripture has seen a sometimes sharp divergence over the years between different Methodist traditions. The other essays in this section are equally stimulating – Karen Tucker's on ‘Methodist liturgy and worship’ having a helpful historical structure. That of Ian Randall dealing with ‘Methodist spirituality’ is largely confined to the eighteenth century, which is a pity, since we are left wondering how tensions within today's global Methodism have manifested themselves.

‘Culture and Society’ is the title for the final section of The Ashgate research companion and is somewhat less compelling – a certain degree of unevenness is inevitable in such an anthology. However, standing out from the others is Peter Forsaith's illuminating contribution on ‘Architecture, artefacts and art’ which covers a neglected area of study; it is reassuring to know that Methodism no longer evinces artistic ‘philistinism’ arising from ‘severe visual anorexia’ (p. 405), though the extent to which it has adapted to and embraced the cultural environments in which it has taken root is very much open to question.

In such a comprehensive anthology, there are some occasional, but surprising omissions, probably the most obvious being the absence of any detailed coverage of non-Wesleyan groups. Though he parted company with the Wesleys on theological grounds, George Whitefield was certainly regarded as a ‘Methodist’, along with his adherents. The same was true of Selina, the Countess of Huntingdon, along with her followers, and of certain evangelical groups in Wales. Indeed, so too were similar groups that remained within the Church of England, and, as Henry Rack points out in his authoritative biography of John Wesley, the term ‘Methodist’ could even at times be used to describe anyone who seemed to be ‘religiously serious’. This is a little surprising because William Gibson himself makes this essential point concerning the nature and precise definition of the word ‘Methodist’ in his introduction, particularly in a subsection entitled ‘Many Methodisms’, and admits that we are faced with the problem that ‘John Wesley's voice drowns out those of the non-Wesleyan Methodist traditions’. This criticism does not, however, detract from what is a very laudable and carefully compiled anthology.

At £85, The Ashgate research companion will be too expensive for all but the most wealthy or committed students of Methodism, but one hopes that it will be on the shelves of many libraries. The past few years have seen two similar weighty collections that have covered a wide range of subjects under the overall umbrella of what can be summarised as ‘Methodism and Wesley Studies’. A review of The Oxford handbook of Methodist studies appeared in this Journal three years ago, and was warmly endorsed by the present writer; the following year we were treated to the Companion to Methodism edited by Charles Yrigoyen Jr. Both collections embraced world Methodism in their coverage and authorship. The Ashgate research companion has an equally broad sweep, is a worthy companion to these recent works, and will provide a rich resource for those wishing to understand how and why Methodism continues to be an important world-wide Christian denomination.