Feasting in the Wilderness, The Lord's Supper in Early North American Methodism

Drawing upon his deep familiarity with the personalities and primary documents of early North American Methodism, historian 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.

-- Elizabeth K. Lynch, Assistant to the Editor, Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia