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Charles White

By on October 3, 2013 in Faculty Publications

White, Charles Edward. “Charles Wesley and the Making of the English Working Class.” Journal of Markets and Morality 16, no. 2 (2013): 603-614.

Although their workload varied from place to place and from time to time, Europeans in the Middle Ages worked roughly two-thirds of the year, with about 80 full days and 70 partial days off. The leading theologian before the Reformation, Thomas Aquinas, had taught them that work, while not a curse, was a necessary evil to be avoided when possible. When not faced with hunger, often they did avoid it. Max Weber twice cites seventeenth-century Dutch economist Pieter de la Court saying that people only work because, and so long as, they are poor.8 How could workers such as these be induced to work long hours more than 300 days a year in the factories of the industrial revolution? They sang the hymns of Charles Wesley.

Charles White

By on February 3, 2010 in Faculty Publications

White, Charles Edward. “Wesley and Methodist Studies, Vol. 1.” Fides Et Historia 42, no. 1 (Winter, 2010): 79-80.

Abstract: The Manchester Wesley Research Center has launched a new journal which, as its website says,”[publishes] scholarly essays that examine the life and work of John and Charles Wesley, their contemporaries (proponents or opponents) in the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival, their historical and theological antecedents, their successors in the Wesleyan tradition, and studies of the contemporary Wesleyan and Evangelical traditions. Its primary historical scope is the eighteenth century to the present; however, WMS will publish essays that explore the historical and theological antecedents of the Wesleys (including work on Samuel and Susanna Wesley), Methodism, and the Evangelical Revival. This journal will have a dual and broad focus on both history and theology. Its aim is to present significant scholarly contributions that shed light on historical and theological understanding of Methodism broadly conceived.”

Charles White

By on March 7, 2006 in Faculty Publications

White, Charles Edward. “God by the numbers: coincidence and random mutation are not the most likely explanations for some things.” Christianity Today 50, no. 3 (March 1, 2006): 44-47.

Abstract: Math and theology have had a long and checkered relationship. The Babylonians and Mayans both associated numbers with God. In fact, both societies named their gods with numbers. The Mayans used 13 and the Babylonians used 60. In the Greek world, followers of Pythagoras prayed to the first 4 numbers and thought they were the creator. On the other hand, in the 18th century, the French mathematician Laplace told Napoleon he had no need of God even as a hypothesis, and in 1744, John Wesley confessed: “I am convinced, from many experiments, I could not study either mathematics, arithmetic, or algebra … without being a deist, if not an atheist.”

Charles White

By on April 29, 2004 in Faculty Publications

White, Charles Edward. “Holiness Fire-Starter.”Christian History & Biography no. 82 (Spring 2004): 16-21.

Abstract: Presents a biography of Phoebe Palmer, the most influential woman in the mid-19th-century Methodism in America. Impact of the death of her child on the choice of life she choose to live; Theology developed and presented by Palmer in her testimony to one’s experience with God; Contributions of Palmer to Theology, revivalism, feminism and humanitarianism.

Charles White

By on May 7, 2001 in Faculty Publications

White, Charles Edward. “Spare the Rod and Spoil the Church.” Christian History  20 no. 1 (2001): 28.

Abstract: Though Methodism thrived on big crowds, its survival depended on the discipline of small groups. When the Methodist movement began to grow, John Wesley faced the problem of dealing with converts who returned to their old ways. Many Methodists came from the lowest social classes, so nothing in their background or environment helped them live the “sober, quiet, godly lives” Wesley prescribed. Their backsliding discouraged those who were trying to follow Christ and gave Methodism’s detractors ammunition.