A Little Heaven Below - by Lester Ruth (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

For early American Methodists, quarterly meetings were great festivals at the heart of Methodism's liturgical life. The meetings lasted several days and could attract thousands. In this volume, Lester Ruth offers a revisionist description of worship at the quarterly meetings in early American Methodism (ca. 1772-1825). The author describes the quarterly meeting as the setting in which early Methodism most "dramatized" itself for public view as graced fellowship. He explores each of the liturgical dynamics of this experience, including the distinction between public and private worship, the loud exuberance of American Methodists, the vivid proclamation of God's Word, the role of the sacraments and of Wesley's liturgical innovations, the power of fellowship as eschatological manifestation, and the interaction between the personal experience of grace and ecclesial inclusion. Unique in its analysis of the quarterly meetings as a key to understanding Early Methodism's liturgical life, this book redefines methodology for doing early Methodist liturgical historiography. It makes ample use of primary materials, including much unpublished archival material: hymns, letters, dairies, prayers, sermons, homiletical manuals, etc. The book offers a fuller, more accurate portrayal of the life of early American Methodists. It will enable readers to understand how Methodist polity shaped worship rhythms and practices and how Methodist piety affected worship and its interpretation. Readers will gain increased understanding of how ecclesial context affects personal experiences of God's grace.

About the Author

Lester Ruth is a historian of Christian worship with a particular interest in the early church and the last 250 years, especially the history of contemporary praise and worship. He is passionate about enriching the worship life of current congregations, regardless of style. He believes that careful reflection on the worship of other Christians--whether past or present, whether Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox--can serve to enrich the church today. Dr. Ruth is a member of the North American Academy of Liturgy and the Society for Pentecostal Studies. He is also the former president of the Charles Wesley Society. Able to range across the entire breadth of Christian liturgical history, his most recent studies have been on the band-based worship known as contemporary praise and worship. Along this line, he has recently co-authored, with Dr. Lim Swee Hong, A History of Contemporary Praise & Worship and Lovin' On Jesus: A Concise History of Contemporary Worship. He has also edited both popular, Flow: The Ancient Way to Do Contemporary Worship, and academic studies, Essays on the History of Contemporary Praise and Worship, on this worship phenomenon, each of these volumes featuring essays by Duke doctoral students. Dr. Ruth's works exist in Korean, Chinese, Indonesian, and (soon) Ukrainian translations.