Dynamic worship, energetic circuit-riding preachers, and a close-up, personal style of leadership made Methodism a movement perfectly suited to bring the word of God to the new nation of America. And Francis Asbury led the way, rising from unremarkable working-class metalworker to bishop of a denomination stretching over a continent.
The first issue of Christian History magazine's series of four on the Reformation explores the roots and fruits of reform. On a quiet October Wednesday in 1517, a young Augustinian monk and theology professor, with one nail to the Wittenberg Castle door, struck a death blow to medieval Catholicism. That’s the story we think we know of Martin Luther, his 95 Theses, and the beginning of the Reformation. But is it the whole story?