Most readers of this journal have come to regard its primary subject matter in the plural—a variety of Christianities, rather than a monolithic, singular Christianity. Whether regarded as baggage of a trendy postmodernism or a trusted item in the traditional historian's tool box, this penchant for the particular and the variant also applies to the study of each Christian sub-tradition. Why not Methodisms in the plural, as well? Jonathan Rodell certainly honors this approach. His 2010 Cambridge University dissertation, from which the book was derived, explicitly signals as much in its title, The Appeal of Methodism(s) in Bedfordshire 1736–1851. And though the current book's title seems to perpetuate the older generic view, its content and organization clearly make good on the dissertation's promise.
Rodell's temporal parameters are a good first place to look for the variations he is dealing with. His starting date, 1736, marks the “first green shoots of the Methodist revival” (1) when Bedford native Francis Okely founded a mixed-gender religious society (two years before Wesley's warm-hearted conversion!), informally tied to the parish church, but soon after sponsored by the Moravians. Rodell's end-date is 1851, the year of Britain's only official census of religious worship, which demonstrated an embarrassingly healthy set of alternatives to the Church of England. By then eight Methodist denominations existed nationally, many of them, along with the Moravians, still active in Bedfordshire. In three extensive chapters Rodell details the variety of evangelical Christianity during “three rises” of Methodism (an allusion to John Wesley's own brief history of his brand) in Bedfordshire: 1736–1790 (typified as a time of “pious societies”); 1791–1830 (“respectable congregations”); and 1831–1851 (“popular protests”). Each of these chapters begins with an overall narrative, followed by four topical sections: a demographic description (age, gender, marital and social status and previous religious connection); a depiction of what being a Methodist involved in each era, i.e., the spiritual and ethical behaviors and religious duties expected of the faithful; an analysis of Methodism and politics; and an account of contemporary responses to Methodism. Each chapter then concludes with a brief summary section, sketching, respectively, “Eighteenth Century Methodism,” “Methodism on the Eve of the Swing Riots,” and “Early Victorian Methodism,” each in all its local complexity.
And, of course, such geographical focus is the raison d'etre of this study: small scale research is crucial to any adequate generalizations at a national or international level, as scholars in the field have long noted. The evangelical revival of the eighteenth century waxed and/or waned differently in different places, and the Bedfordshire story, not previously so closely studied or so clearly narrated, demonstrates important nuances from the received accounts of (generic) Methodist history. At the intersection of East Anglia, the Midlands and the south-east, this county boasted varied agriculture, some cottage industry, “well-resourced and fully functioning” Anglican parish churches and a hearty tradition of dissent (xix-xxii). And yet various versions of Methodism caught on, proving that not all called by that name were either Wesleyans, factory workers, miners or urbanites—let alone residents of Yorkshire or Cornwall!
Given the impressive breadth and depth of Rodell's research in all sorts of published and manuscript sources, the reader can be especially appreciative of his organizational ability. The “chaotic diversity of the movement” (76) began with plenty of local initiatives and cooperation before national affiliations and rivalries took over and inward-turning groupings became the rule by the late 1790s. In the early nineteenth century the Wesleyan version of Methodism began to claim center stage, with “prominent, main street chapels” (126) and its own denominational ethos, while the Calvinistic Methodism of the earlier period receded either into evangelical Anglicanism or dissent, and Moravianism looked more and more like just another version of the latter. And after 1830 an increasingly settled Wesleyan Methodism continued to gain confidence and respectability in both towns and villages, but so to some extent did rival groups (such as the Primitive Methodists), who offered “millenarian visions and much greater opportunities for working class people” (220).
Rodell's narrative delivers fascinating detail. In the early chapter, he records, for example, the exploits of John Berridge, vicar of Everton and regional Methodist itinerant, who eventually forsook Wesley and adopted the Calvinism of Whitefield and Lady Huntingdon. During the “second rise” he describes not only the familiar Methodist practices of hymn singing, love feasts and watch nights, but also a little-appreciated addendum to the local sacred calendar: the chapel anniversary, an opportunity to celebrate the society's bricks-and-mortar home, and in the process raise funds and show off fine music and a good visiting preacher to non-Methodists neighbors. In the last period covered, he recounts the Methodist political muscle allegedly responsible for Lord John Russell's narrow defeat in the 1830 election for Bedford, which had been a reliable family parliamentary seat. And he reports how, later in that decade, Mormon missionaries appeared in the county along with other free-lance preachers, many of them taking on various Methodist characterstics—and not a few Methodist members.
All this emphasis on the differences one finds in studying Bedfordshire Methodisms leads Rodell to a very fine final chapter that integrates his local discoveries into the wider “historiography of Methodist growth.” He creatively engages the perspectives of E.P. Thompson and Alan Gilbert down through and including those of W.R. Ward, John Walsh, David Hempton, and Phyllis Mack (among others), demonstrating the importance of his local history to the wider story. The book is well-produced with all sorts of helps: glossy photographs, maps, tables, glossary, index and an appendix evaluating the sources. All told, a gem of a local history.
For those seeking a more conversational and visual overview of the subject, Rodell has produced a thoughtful and entertaining half-hour video (BBC documentaries are not in danger of being displaced, but Rodell does give Diarmaid MacCulloch a pretty fair run for his money as an on-camera ecclesiastical historian!): www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uedJjb1Nno.
