Category Archives: Book Review

Preach It, Eddie!

30 Saturday Jan 2010

Posted by in Book Review, Christian Living, Ministry

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In today’s mail my copy of Eddie Gibbs’ Churchmorph: How Megatrends Are Reshaping Christian Communities finally arrived. I ordered it for a directed study I am enrolled in this semester with Dr. Elaine Heath called “Spiritual Formation through Community.” I am really looking forward to working with Dr. Heath this semester, as I have already benefited from several previous conversations with her.

I want to share the following quote I just read from Gibbs’ book:

“Evangelization is not an end in itself, but rather an invitation to a life of discipleship. Unfortunately, discipleship has become an elitist concept, referring to those who are ‘really serious’ about their faith commitment. Much evangelization has focused on the decision itself to the neglect of the change of allegiance that such a decision entails. Addressing this disconnect entails first the need to address, as a matter of urgency, the challenge of undisciplined church members” (48).

Amen!

I particularly resonate with the unfortunate reality that discipleship has come to be seen as something for an elite few, rather than as the norm for every person who has received the gift of forgiveness and new birth through faith in Jesus Christ. I hope he says more!

(By the way: If you are not familiar with Elaine Heath’s work, you should check it out. Her books have been rolling off the presses over the last year! I am particularly excited about Longing for Spring: A New Vision for Wesleyan Community, which she co-authored with Scott Kisker. She has also recently published The Mystical Way of Evangelism: A Contemplative Vision for Christian Outreach. I am also looking forward to reading her work on Phoebe Palmer titled, Naked Faith: The Mystical Theology of Phoebe Palmer. Professor William J. Abraham writes in the Foreword to the book, “Elaine Heath’s work breaks extraordinary new ground in the interpretation of the theology of Phoebe Palmer… This is wonderfully accessible, ground-breaking scholarship on the great mystic of Methodism.“)

Bishop Will Willimon Likes Blueprint for Discipleship

16 Friday Oct 2009

Posted by in Book Review, links, Methodist History, Wesley

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I am grateful to have received the following comments from Bishop Willimon about my book A Blueprint for Discipleship: Wesley’s General Rules as a Guide for Christian Living:

“Methodism’s General Rules are one of our most neglected, and sometimes
abused resources. Thanks to Kevin Watson, we now have a powerful
recovery of these great treasures of the Wesleyan tradition. With great
respect for the riches of our past, Kevin gives us some specific,
practical ways in which our churches can move forward by first looking
back. Wesleyanism provoked a grand rejuvenation of the church through
the ordering of ordinary lives by a vision of the transforming power of
the living Christ. Kevin’s book continues and even augments this grand
spiritual revolution that is Wesleyan Christianity.”

Will Willimon, North Alabama Conference, the United Methodist Church

You can read other endorsements and see more information about the book here.

You can buy the book from amazon.com, Discipleship Resources, or Cokesbury.

Organizing from the Bottom Up

05 Monday Oct 2009

Posted by in Accountability, Book Review, Methodist History, Ministry, Wesley

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In a book I am reading for one of my classes this semester, Inventing the “Great Awakening” by Frank Lambert I came across the following quotation:

“Beginning with a few Oxford students, Wesley embarked on a lifetime task of organizing Christians from the bottom up, banding small groups of Christians together in religious societies for the purpose of deepening their faith and then putting it into action through charities and evangelism” (85)

This sentence has stuck with me. I have not often thought about the pastor’s task being one of bottom up organization. But it seems to make quite a bit of sense. This also seems to be a way of agreeing with people who argue that it is too late for the UMC as an institution to return to Wesleyan practices, such as an equivalent of the class meeting. Lambert has given me an image that helps me to think about restoring an authentically Wesleyan approach to discipleship in the local church, and it is beautifully straightforward! If Lambert is right, one of the key roles of Wesleyan preachers and lay leaders was organizing Christians in small groups “for the purpose of deepening their faith and then putting it into action.”

In a sense, the beauty of early Methodism was that the weight of the institution was behind this. In other words, paradoxically, the idea to organize for the purpose of deepening faith that would lead to action came from the top down. The powers that be commanded a bottom down approach to discipleship!

Today the situation has changed. We live in a time of increasing bureaucratization of the UMC, and the institution does not demand this bottom up approach to discipleship. Yet, while the full weight of the institution may not be behind the necessity of small group formation, it is also not actively forbidding or hindering it. This means that every pastor or active lay person who wants to return to the riches of our Wesleyan heritage does not have to wait on the powers that be to give the green light. It also means that we should not use the behemoth that is the institutional UMC as an excuse for failing to organize Christians wherever we find ourselves in order to better position them to be transformed by the grace of God and practice their faith.

In other words, Lambert’s image of bottom up discipleship is a hopeful one for me, because it suggests that the only thing keeping people at the local church level from experiencing the blessing of “watching over one another in love” is a failure of people at the level of the local church to do it. And while that is not an insignificant obstacle, it certainly seems to be a far smaller one than trying to change everything that is wrong with the UMC – broadly speaking – before actually turning our attention to the people that are coming to our churches, seeking to live faithfully and experience the fullness of life in Christ.

What do you think? Is the idea of a bottom up approach to discipleship promising for the contemporary UMC?

Wesley: A Guide for the Perplexed

29 Tuesday Sep 2009

Posted by in Book Review, Methodist History, Wesley

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Last week I had the opportunity to meet and visit with Dr. Jason Vickers, who is professsor of theology and Wesley studies, and the director of the Center for Evangelical United Brethren Heritage at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. I really enjoyed the conversation with Dr. Vickers and appreciated his making the time to meet with me.

His visit also gave me the push I had been needing to finally get to a book that had been on my shelf for nearly a year, his Wesley: A Guide for the Perplexed. And I have to say that this book was a delight to read. It is concise (the text is just over 100 pages) and well written. The main reason for my enthusiasm, however, is that the book does an excellent job of both summarizing several previous arguments in the field of Wesley Studies and then showing a new way of resolving these old debates. Vickers argues that Wesley’s English context was not nearly as secularized as it has often been viewed to have been, arguing instead for the “Anglican stabilization thesis.” Vickers further argues, in my view quite convincingly, that there is “a logical consistency running through Wesley’s ecclesiastical, political and theological commitments” (5)

Because of the skill with which Vickers is able to summarize many of the key issues in understanding John Wesley’s actions – particularly his decision to ordain ministers for American and Scotland, this brief book is an indispensable resource for students of Wesley studies. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is a student of John Wesley and wants to better understand the scholarly debate surrounding his relationship to his context.

Highly Anticipated Methodist Scholarship…

15 Tuesday Sep 2009

Posted by in Book Review, links, Methodist History, Wesley

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This semester will see the publication of three books that each promise to make important contributions to the field of Wesleyan/Methodist Studies.

First, John Wigger’s American Saint: Francis Asbury and the Methodists. This book is currently in stock on Amazon, which is earlier than I thought it was expected to be available. The book is described as follows on Oxford’s listing:

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.

Wigger’s in-depth account of Asbury’s life promises to provide important insights into the key figure in the development of early American Methodism. And if it is as good as his previous book, Taking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America, it will not just be an important contribution to the field, but a delight to read. I am very excited to get my hands on this book!

Second, The Oxford Handbook of Methodist Studies, edited by Perkins School of Theology’s own William J. Abraham and James E. Kirby has forty-two essays that survey the development of the field of Methodist Studies. It is also published by Oxford and is described:

With the decision to provide a scholarly edition of the Works of John Wesley in the 1950s, Methodist Studies emerged as a fresh academic venture. Building on the foundation laid by Frank Baker, Albert Outler, and other pioneers of the discipline, this handbook provides an overview of the best current scholarship in the field. The forty-two included essays are representative of the voices of a new generation of international scholars, summarising and expanding on topical research, and considering where their work may lead Methodist Studies in the future.

Thematically ordered, the handbook provides new insights into the founders, history, structures, and theology of Methodism, and into ongoing developments in the practice and experience of the contemporary movement. Key themes explored include worship forms, mission, ecumenism, and engagement with contemporary ethical and political debate.

I thought the Oxford listing also had the titles of each essay as well as the authors, but I could not find it. With forty-two essays, I am confident that there will be many names that are recognized by students of Methodism, as well as contributions from the next generation of scholars of Methodism. Here is the only problem with this book – the price. It is listed at $150… I have a feeling that I am really going to want to have this book on my shelf, but may have to settle for having it there for a few weeks as the result of checking it out of the library.

Third, the Cambridge Companion to John Wesley, edited by Randy L. Maddox and Jason E. Vickers. This one, thankfully, will be available in a paperback edition, which means it should be much more reasonably priced. According to Cambridge’s listing for the book, it is scheduled to be published in December, 2009. The Cambridge listing does include the contents of the book:

Introduction Randy L. Maddox and Jason E. Vickers

Part I. Wesley’s Context:
1. The long eighteenth century Jeremy Gregory

Part II. Wesley’s Life:
2. Wesley’s life and ministry Kenneth J. Collins
3. Wesley in context David N. Hempton

Part III. Wesley’s Work:
4. Wesley as revivalist / renewal leader Charles I. Wallace
5. Wesley as preacher William J. Abraham
6. Wesley as biblical interpreter Robert W. Wall
7. Wesley as diarist and correspondent Ted A. Campbell
8. Wesley as editor and publisher Isabel Rivers
9. Wesley’s engagement with the natural sciences Randy L. Maddox
10. Wesley as adviser on health and healing Deborah Madden
11. Wesley’s theological emphases Jason E. Vickers
12. Wesley’s emphases on ethics Rebekah L. Miles
13. Wesley’s emphases on worship and the means of grace Karen B. Westerfield Tucker

Part IV. Wesley’s Legacy:
14. Spread of Wesleyan Methodism Kenneth Cracknell
15. The Holiness/Pentecostal/charismatic extension of the Wesleyan tradition Randall J. Stephens
16. The African-American wing of the Wesleyan tradition Dennis C. Dickerson
17. Current debates over Wesley’s legacy among his progeny Sarah H. Lancaster.

You may not care as much about this stuff as I do, but as a Ph.D. student working in Wesley Studies it is mind boggling that so much is coming out at the same time. These three books promise to shape the conversation about Wesley/Methodist Studies in the coming years. I look forward to engaging these works.

Surrendering the Legacy of Entire Sanctification

28 Friday Aug 2009

Posted by in Book Review, Christian Living, Methodist History, Wesley

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In The Holiness Revival of the Nineteenth Century, Melvin E. Dieter discusses the tension that developed as the holiness revival progressed amongst its Methodist adherents over “come-outism.” This term referred to Methodists who left (or came out of) Methodism to pursue a purer form of holiness fellowship or association. Dieter argued that there were many Methodists who were advocates of the importance of holiness and who felt that it was essential that this movement stay connected with Methodism. In fact, some seemed to have seen this connection as crucial to Methodism’s future vitality.

Dieter goes on to discuss a parallel debate within Methodism over whether entire sanctification was Wesleyan. According to Dieter, “critics of the revival often had charged that the preaching of the Christian perfection which became characteristic of the revival was un-Wesleyan because the context of American revivalism tended to create significant variations from Methodism’s standard teachings of the doctrine” (256).

Interestingly, though, this argument was actually not all that persuasive or effective. Dieter argues that the holiness movement was “so closely identified with traditional Methodism and Wesleyan doctrine and life that Methodist opponents of the revival were forced to distance themselves from Wesley and the standard authors of prevailing Methodist theology to resolve the struggle with the holiness elements within the church” (256). In other words, those who opposed the holiness revival recognized that they could not win the argument by appealing to Wesley’s authority, so they looked for other sources of authority, and even a new heritage.

The Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Episcopal Church South, then, shifted strategies. Instead of looking back to their heritage and the tradition that they were living out of, they looked forward “to the new and greener pastures in more modern teachers and theologies” (256). And so Dieter argues:

The legacy of entire sanctification, with whatever modifications may have been made to it during the course of the American deeper life revival, was now being surrendered, in large part, to the holiness movement; it had become difficult for the tradition to survive within its original Methodist Episcopal Church and Methodist Episcopal Church South home. (256)

Oddly, or perhaps hopefully, the MEC and MECS did not entirely officially abandon its connection to the doctrine of entire sanctification. For example, this morning I verified that the historic examination questions for admission into Methodist ministry are included in every MEC Discipline from 1884 until union with the MECS and Methodist Protestant Church in 1939. These are the very questions that are asked today of every person who presents themselves for ordination in the United Methodist Church as an elder or deacon. The second, third, and fourth questions are: Are you going on to perfection? Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life? Are you earnestly striving after it?

Yesterday, I asked the students in my United Methodist History class if any of them had ever heard a sermon preached on entire sanctification or christian perfection. Not one of the nineteen students present had. As United Methodists, we seem to be living in a strange tension. In many ways we seem to have surrendered the doctrine of entire sanctification to other Wesleyan holiness groups, while still officially holding to the teaching in our doctrine and Book of Discipline. Or perhaps we have not surrendered the doctrine, just our commitment to teaching and preaching it. Somewhere along the way the very thing that Wesley believed to be one of the very reasons God raised up the people called Methodists became an embarrassment to later generations of Methodists.

I wish more ordained United Methodists would become uncomfortable with the fact that they have publicly affirmed their commitment and expectation that, by God’s grace, they expect to be made perfect in love in this life. United Methodists should not become familiar with this teaching only if they go to seminary. It should be preached in every Methodist pulpit, as the result of every UM pastor’s wrestling with what Wesley did and did not mean by “perfection,” and their efforts to present this to their parishioners in a way that they can understand. May we reclaim this “grand depositum” that God has entrusted to those who faithfully live out of the Wesleyan heritage.

Flickering Pixels – Using or Being Used by Technology?

22 Monday Jun 2009

Posted by in Book Review, links, Ministry, Technology

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The ironies were swirling in my head as I read Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith by Shane Hipps. Flickering Pixels is a book about the impact that technology has on the way that the message we communicate is received. In many ways this book is a sustained argument in favor of the slogan “the medium is the message.” Or, to make it more distinct, it is the first book I have read that is about technology that is written by a young pastor with an endorsement by a hip pastor like Rob Bell that primarily critiques, or at least cautions, the way that younger pastors so often use technology.

Here comes irony #1: The only reason I read this book is because I saw Blake Huggins send out a tweet about entering to win a free copy of the book. I like free books, so I entered myself. I won.

Irony #2: Since being made aware of the existence of this book, I have noticed that many people are talking about it in the blogosphere and many people seem to love the book… but I haven’t noticed anyone (there are probably examples of this that I just haven’t noticed) interacting with the ways that the book might inform or challenge the fact that they are blogging in the first place.

Irony #3: I am now writing a blog post about the book. And, while it has made me think about the limitations of blogging, I will not address that in this post beyond what I have already said.

Flickering Pixels is a quick read, and because of its subject matter, I would highly recommend it to anyone who spends a significant amount of time writing blogs, reading blogs, using facebook or twitter, surfing the internet, watching tv… if you don’t fit into any of these catagories you are not reading this, so I will stop there. Hipps argues that though we are not often aware of it, technology shapes us. It impacts the way that we think and see the world.

Quotation #1: “When we fail to perceive that the things we create are extension of ourselves, the created things take on god-like characteristics and we become their servants” (35).

Have you ever been around someone who has become a slave to their cell phone? They are unable (so it seems) to not answer it, even when answering it is incredibly rude. Cell phones, from my perspective, were originally created to be a means of convenience to the person who had a cell phone. Now it usually seems like they are a means of convenience to the person calling the cell phone. Hipps’ insight, however, has implications for every area of technology. I try not to answer my cell phone if I am with someone else. Yet, I am sometimes a slave to my email. The point is not that technology is evil. But we should be aware of its ability to become addicting.

Quotation #2: “The Internet has a natural bias toward exhibitionism and thus the erosion of real intimacy. There is nothing exclusive about it, yet it creates, paradoxically, a kind of illusion of intimacy with people we’ve never met in person” (113).

I immediately thought of facebook when re-reading this quote. But since I am not a huge fan of facebook, it is probably more relevant to me for blogging. I can often feel the temptation on this blog to get on my soapbox and blast away at something (I guess I just did that with the way that some people use their cell phones). And it does seem to me that there is a very fine line between the openness and transparency that facilitates an interesting and edifying blog on the one hand and an inappropriate intimacy and exhibitionism on the other hand. The hard part is that while some boundaries are clear in my mind, you may different boundaries than I do.

Quotation #3: “Virtual community is infinitely more virtual than it is communal. It’s a bit like cotton candy: It goes down easy and satiates our immediate hunger, but it doesn’t provide much in the way of sustainable nutrition. Not only that, but our appetite is spoiled. We no longer feel the need to participate in authentic community. Authentic community involves high degrees of intimacy, permanence, and proximity. While relative intimacy can be gained in virtual settings, the experiences of permanence and proximity have all but vanished.

I’m not morally opposed to cotton candy or virtual community. However, I am concerned that virtual community is slowly becoming our preferred way of relating. I don’t think the results will be any better than if we started eating spun sugar for breakfast, lunch, and dinner” (114).

Irony #4: I am going to attempt to form virtual community by inviting your response.

What do you think about Hipps critique of virtual community? Do you find it convincing? Unconvincing? I was particularly interested as I read this book in how people would respond who are starting internet campuses. If the medium is the message it would seem to me that watching a worship service on the internet could communicate the ultimate form of individualism and privatization of Christianity. Do you know of ways in which internet campuses try to offset this potential shortcoming? Or does you not see this as an inevitability?

The Explosive Growth of Methodism from 1776 to 1850

17 Wednesday Jun 2009

Posted by in Book Review, Methodist History, Wesley

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The numerical growth that occurred in early American Methodism can be found in many different sources. However, in Roger Finke and Rodney Stark’s The Churching of America, 1776-2005: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy, they tell the story in a slightly different way. Finke and Stark have a chart (on p. 56) that shows the religious adherents as a percentage of total adherents by denominations in 1776 and again in 1850. In other words, they show the market share of six denominations during this time.

In 1776 Methodists made up 2.5 % of religious adherent in the colonies. In 1850 Methodists made up 34.2 % of religious adherents! In seventy years they had increased from a tiny sect to the largest denomination in the United States. (In other words, in 1776 1 in 40 religious people in America were Methodist. In 1859 1 in 3 were.) And no other denomination was even close to the Methodists at this time. The second largest denomination was the Baptists with 20.5%.

This is significant because in a growing population it is possible to experience numerical growth while declining in relation to the overall population. Finke and Stark point to the Congregationalists as illustrative of this. In 1776 Congregationalists made up 20.4% of religious adherents (the largest denomination in the colonies). In 1850 they made up 4%. During this time they had been passed by the Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, and Presbyterians. Yet, “despite this extraordinary shift in their fortunes, Congregationalist leaders during this era expressed surprisingly little concern” (56).

I have just begun reading Finke and Stark’s book. However, one thing that reading the book has made me think about is that most people don’t go back far enough when discussing the decline of American Methodism. Most people point to, ironically, somewhere around the time of the formation of the United Methodist Church in 1968. But the indicators of decline were in place long before that. Unfortunately, if in 1776 the Congregationalists were the largest denomination and they experienced an unexpected decrease in growth relative to other denominations, the Methodists would experience a similar decrease in growth relative to other denominations in the decades after 1850. The highwater mark, then, of American Methodism was not 1968, but somewhere around 1850.

I Forgot to Mention… and a Link to a Good Post

22 Wednesday Apr 2009

Posted by in Accountability, Book Review, links

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In my post about Wesleyan essentials, I mentioned that one Wesleyan essential is the doctrine of Christian perfection, or entire sanctification. I should have mentioned that Steve Manskar (who blogs at Accountable Discipleship) has published an excellent book A Perfect Love: Understanding John Wesley’s A Plain Account of Christian Perfectionwhich is an updated version of Wesley’s Plain Account of Christian Perfection, with notes and questions. It is an excellent resource which makes what Wesley did, and did not, mean by Christian perfection accessible.

Second, Craig Adams has written a worthwhile post on key things to think about regarding Wesleyan renewal.

Enough, Adam Hamilton [Review]

27 Friday Mar 2009

Posted by in Book Review

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What do Dave Ramsey, Will Willimon, Brian McLaren, Bill Hybels, and John Ortberg all have in common? Hopefully among other things, they all like Adam Hamilton‘s new book Enough: Discovering Joy through Simplicity and Generosity

Adam Hamilton is well enough known in United Methodist circles that he needs no introduction. His most important contribution, in my view, is the role that he has played in the explosion of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS. Resurrection has grown from a handful of worshipers in 1990 to average weekly attendance of more than 7,500 in 2006. He has also written several other books. My favorites are Leading Beyond the Walls: Developing Congregations With a Heart for the Unchurchedwhich tells the story of UM Church of the Resurrection and offers many practical tips for pastors who want to learn from Hamilton’s successes and failures and Confronting The Controversies: Biblical Perspectives On Tough Issues: Leader’s Guidewhich provides a model for preaching on difficult issues.

In Enough, Hamilton turns to what is perhaps the stickiest subject for any pastor to try to talk about – money. Enough is characteristic of Hamilton’s other writing. It is concise, engaging, and well written. Hamilton seeks to challenge his readers in a way that will not turn them off or cause them to tune out.

Hamilton describes the problem that the books seeks to address in the first chapter “When Dreams Become Nightmares.” Hamilton suggests that the American dream may actually be a nightmare, describing the illnesses of affluenza and credit-itis which have infected so many Americans.

In the next chapter Hamilton encourages the reader to develop a plan (read: create and stick to a budget) so that they can live with deeper purpose. In the third chapter Hamilton focuses on “cultivating contentment” and “simplifying your life.” In the second and third chapters readers will find advice that is practical and true, but also likely familiar. In many ways this may not be stuff that we don’t know or haven’t heard, but stuff that we have heard and ignored. (Gavin Richardson has a similar take on this in his review.)

Hamilton concludes the book by exhorting the reader to give generously and to avoid the fear which often keeps us from living generously.

There is little in the book that I would take issue with. The main criticism that I have is not what is in the book, but what isn’t in the book. I could be wrong, but my guess is that Hamilton’s audience is primarily a United Methodist one. However, he offers what seems to be an intentionally generic account of personal finance. In other words, he offers no reflection on the contribution that our heritage as United Methodists has to make to this topic. This is unfortunate, because stewardship was something that John Wesley was deeply concerned about.

Wesley was concerned about Methodist stewardship because he was afraid that Methodists would grow rich and, as a result, become more committed to affluence, losing their zeal for spreading the gospel and growing in holiness. Wesley does not pull any punches. Indeed, it may be that he is too blunt about what he thinks is at stake. In the sermon “Causes of the Inefficacy of Christianity” Wesley asks:

Does it not seem (and yet this cannot be!) that Christianity, true scriptural Christianity, has a tendency in process of time to undermine and destroy itself? For wherever true Christianity spreads it must cause diligence and frugality, which, in the natural course of things, must beget riches. And riches naturally beget pride, love of the world, and every temper that is destructive of Christianity….

But is there no way to prevent this? To continue Christianity among a people? Allowing that diligence and frugality must produce riches, is there no means to hinder riches from destroying the religion of those that possess them? I can see only one possible way – find out another who can. Do you gain all you can, and save all you can? Then you must in the nature of things grow rich. Then if you have any desire to escape the damnation of hell, give all you can. Otherwise I can have no more hope of your salvation than for that of Judas Iscariot.”

Has Methodism undermined itself? Is our affluence in danger of destroying Methodism? Maybe these questions wouldn’t sell very many books. They do seem to be relevant and worth wrestling with. Moreover, I have often read or heard Adam Hamilton appeal to the Wesleyan tradition’s continuing relevance for United Methodism. From my perspective, any account of stewardship written by a United Methodist must at some level wrestle with Wesley’s hard, even radical teaching.

Perhaps it is unfair to criticize a book for what is not there, as more could always be said. What Hamilton has said is level-headed and is surely a helpful reminder for all who seek to become deeply committed disciples of Jesus Christ. Ultimately, Hamilton’s argument is implicitly very Wesleyan – Christians find joy when they learn to live simply and give generously, when they love not mammon but the Lord God.