Dr. James E. Pedlar

Title & Contact Info

Donald N. and Kathleen G. Bastian Chair of Wesley Studies
Director, ThM Program, Associate Professor of Theology

 Email: jpedlar [at] tyndale.ca
 Phone: 416.226.6620 ext. 2215
 Personal Website

Academic Credentials

BA (Hons), Queen’s University, 2002
MDiv, Wycliffe College / University of Toronto, 2005
PhD, University of St. Michael’s College, 2013

Areas of Specialization

Wesleyan theology, ecclesiology, unity and diversity in the church, renewal and reform movements

Biography

Rev. Dr. James Pedlar is a Wesleyan theologian whose scholarship focuses on ecclesiology – especially questions involving renewal and reform movements and the unity of the church. These themes feature in his recently-published book, British Methodist Revivalism and the Eclipse of Ecclesiology. His earlier book, Division, Diversity, and Unity, explored the use of the Pauline concept of “charisms” as a way of thinking about the unique gifts that renewal movements bring to the life of the church.

Dr. Pedlar is the current President of the Wesleyan Theological Society and a Fellow at the Manchester Wesley Research Centre, where he supervises doctoral students. He is an Assistant Editor of the academic journal, Wesley and Methodist Studies, and a member of the Review Board for the Wesley Works Digitization Project. Each spring, he convenes Tyndale’s Wesley Studies Symposium, an event that fosters Canadian scholarship on the Wesleyan tradition

As an ordained minister in the Free Methodist Church in Canada, Dr. Pedlar serves on the denomination's Study Commission on Doctrine and leads the worship ministry at Wesley Chapel in Scarborough. He has previously ministered in various roles with The Salvation Army and the Canadian Council of Churches, and represented the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada for seven years on the Canadian Roman Catholic-Evangelical Dialogue.

Popular Courses

  • Theology of John Wesley: Renewing the Heart Renewing the Church
  • Creation, New Creation, and Creation Stewardship
  • Theology of Church Renewal: Movements of the Spirit

Favourite Place on Campus

I love to go to the path at the back of campus and look out over the hill leading down to the East Don River. It is a wonderful place to reflect on the beauty of God's creation!

Favourite Place in Toronto

The Toronto Reference Library is one of my favourite places to work. It's an interesting building with lots of study spaces, a fantastic coffee shop (Balzac's) and a used book store with unbeatable deals.

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