Feasting in the Wilderness (Paperback)

2 reviews for Feasting in the Wilderness (Paperback)

1. 

   James E. Pedlar, Bastian Chair of Wesley Studies, Tyndale Seminary – November 2, 2025

   Gregory Van Dussen continues his important work of allowing the circuit riders to speak to us today. While many of us would associate such servants of God with evangelistic preaching and revivalistic services, Van Dussen highlights the central place of the Lord’s Supper in circuit rider spirituality. Beginning with early Methodism in Britain, he traces the lineage of this communion-centered spirituality across the Atlantic to the far-flung mission of the circuit riders in North America. As he shows, this great cloud of witnesses still has much to teach us!

2. 

   Elizabeth K. Lynch, Assistant to the Editor, Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia – November 2, 2025

   Greg Van Dussen has produced a valuable survey of Eucharistic practices among Methodists living in frontier settings in the racially polarized southern United States, through the trans-Appalachian region, to sparsely populated and yet racially diverse Upper Canada. Van Dussen gives us vivid examples of the efforts of early Methodist leaders to satisfy the hunger for sacramental care among people living in frontier settlements, as well as powerful contemporary accounts of the results when these needs were met. While giving due attention to the failings of Christian people, Feasting in the Wilderness focuses on the larger story of the unfailing – and often surprising – grace of God made visible in the lives of ordinary people of all races who lived in the American borderlands and the committed and faithful ministers of all races who cared for them wherever they were to be found.