Dr. James E. Pedlar

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

James Pedlar believes Christian theology is never merely an intellectual exercise because true knowledge of God is transformative and participatory. His hope is that students will leave his classes with a deeper love for God and a greater capacity to articulate the Christian faith, so that all God’s people might be equipped for the work of ministry.

Dr. Pedlar is a Wesleyan theologian whose work focuses on ecclesiology – especially questions involving renewal and reform movements. His first 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. He is currently writing a book on revivalism and ecclesiology in British Methodism. His articles have appeared journals such as Wesley and Methodist Studies, the Wesleyan Theological Journal, the Canadian Theological Review, and Ecumenical Trends. Dr. Pedlar is a Fellow at the Manchester Wesley Research Centre, where he supervises doctoral students. He is an Assistant Editor of Wesley and Methodist Studies and a member of the executive of the Wesleyan Theological Society. Each spring, he convenes Tyndale’s Wesley Studies Symposium, an event that fosters Canadian scholarship on the Wesleyan tradition.

Dr. Pedlar is an ordained minister in the Free Methodist Church in Canada, and he leads the worship ministry at Wesley Chapel in Scarborough. He has previously served 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.

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