Annual Wesley Studies Symposium

Since 2009, Tyndale Seminary has gathered local scholars, students, and church leaders for an annual Wesley Studies Symposium. The symposium exists to highlight and foster scholarly work on the Wesleyan tradition, as well as research on related topics undertaken by Wesleyans, with a particular focus on Canadian contributions. Our presenters have included senior scholars, emerging scholars, pastors, and students. A list of past papers can be found below, including links to some of the presentations.

2023 Wesley Symposium

Heritage and Hope: Wesleyan Wisdom for the Future of Ministry

Celebrating 30 Years of the Bastian Chair of Wesley Studies

We are living in a time of tremendous challenge for the church: global instability, the continuing collapse of Christendom, an ever-changing technological landscape, the challenges of intercultural ministry, evolving patterns of church attendance and affiliation...in many ways we are sailing in uncharted waters. How might John Wesley and the Wesleyan heritage keep us on an even keel as we navigate toward a brighter future for the church and its ministry? How does the Wesleyan "optimism of grace" keep us oriented in a disorienting time?

We will consider these questions and more at our annual Wesley Studies Symposium on April 25, 2023 at Tyndale University. This year we are celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the Wesley Chair by welcoming back the two previous occupants of the Chair as our keynote speakers: Dr Victor Shepherd and Dr Howard Snyder. Both men are oustanding scholars who are well known to the Canadian Wesleyan community. Dr Shepherd held the chair from 1993-2003, and has continues to serve at Tyndale as Professor Emeritus of Theology. Dr. Snyder was the Chair from 2007-2012, and is presently the International Representative of the Manchester Wesley Research Centre.

In addition to the two keynotes, we will have papers from Stuart Williams (Skyview Nazarene), Dan Sheffield (Grapeview Free Methodist), James Watson (Salvation Army HQ), Sarah Newman (Tyndale), and Aaron Perry (Indiana Wesleyan University). A full schedule will be ready soon.

Online and In-Person tickets available. Order by March 31 to receive the early bird discount. Student discounts also apply.

2022 Wesleyan-Pentecostal Symposium:
Sisters of the Spirit: Women in the Holiness and Pentecostal Tradition

Videos of each presentation from the 2022 are available as one playlist, or individually via the links below.

Priscilla Pope-Levison, “Dressing Their Spiritual and Ecclesial Changes: Women Preachers in the Progressive Era.”
Linda Ambrose, “Such an Unusual Voice: Bernice Gerard and Twentieth Century Canadian Pentecostalism.”
Kimberly Kit Man Lai, “Called into Perfection: Mary Fletcher’s ‘Watch Words.’”
Amy Caswell Bratton, “Transformation and transmission: the transforming influence of written spiritual narratives in early Methodism.”
Christine Faragher, “A Complex Inheritance: the Ambiguous Legacy of Catherine Mumford Booth’s Defence of Female Ministry.”
James Tyler Robertson, “The Decline and Fall of the Canadian Jerusalem: Ellen Hebden and the Influence of an Independent Canadian Pentecostal Movement.”
Christy Mesaros-Winckles, “Saved, Sanctified and Filled with the Spirit: Narrative Accounts of Early Free Methodist Women Evangelists.”
Xenia Ling-Yee Chan, “‘How Should We Ever Learn to Walk Alone?’: The Witness of Eliza Suggs.”
Ian Fitzpatrick, “Theology versus Practice of Women in Ministry: A Denominational Leader’s Perspective.”
Rebecca Laird, “Is Holy Boldness Enough? A retrospective on the work of Dr. Susie C. Stanley, scholar and founder of the Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy Conference.”
Caleb Courtney, “What Did They Say About Themselves? The Autobiographical Writings of Canadian Pentecostal Missionary Women.”
J. Heather Robinson, “Under the Microscope: Dr. Lilian Yeomans under a Historical and Gendered Lens”

2021 Wesley Symposium

Video of each presentation from the 2021 Wesley Symposium are available at the links below.

Joel Thiessen, "Signs of Life and Vitality in Canadian Congregations: Drawing on Data to Inform Practice."
Christopher Payk, “Prevenient Grace and Chinese Theology.”
Matthew McEwen, “Ignatius of Loyola and John Wesley: A Conversation About Scripture.”
Barbara Robinson, “‘I earnestly desire him to be electrified’: John Wesley, the formative Salvation Army and ‘Irregular’ Medicine.”
Jason Mills, “Virtual Virtue: Exploring the Fruitfulness of Online Pastoral Education.”
Gerry Mielke, “Christian Perfection, from Wesley to Phoebe Palmer.”
Charles Meeks, “Recovering a Wesleyan Sense of Open Table Communion for Anglicans with the Help of a Lutheran.”

2019 Wesley Symposium

Audio files available via the links below.

Marguerite Van Die, “Canadian Methodist Spirituality in the Late Nineteenth Century: revisiting the past, renewing the future.”
Justin Bradbury, “Nothing Stands Alone: The Means of Grace and Mission in John Wesley's Theology.”
Charlotte Chung ,“John Wesley’s Doctrine of the Holy Spirit: The Triune God as the foundation and telos of creation.”
Mike Puddicombe, "Missional Theological Education and Its Impact on the Local Church."
Nathan Veley, “John Wesley and Thomas Aquinas on perfection in relation to the Imago Dei.”
Aaron Perry, “Saving Faces: Considering the Tension of Self-Revelation and Pastoral Leadership Through the Fiction of C.S. Lewis."
Janelle Zeeb, “Purgatory for Protestants? Jerry Walls and Gregory Boyd on Purgatory and Sanctification.”
Jeffery McPherson, “Social Holiness: The Problem of Dementia for the Doctrine of Christian Perfection.”

2018 Wesley Symposium

Audio from the 2018 Symposium is available here.

Stephen Lennox, keynote addess: "A Sanctifying Context: Higher Education in the Wesleyan Tradition."
Dan Sheffield, “A Wesleyan Ecology of Christian Formation.” [Slides from Sheffield's presentation]
Tim Perry, “Evangelicals and Vatican II.”
Michael Brain, “The Evangelization of Metaphysics: Robert W. Jenson and the Barthian Critique of Religion.”
Axel Kazadi, “The Arrangement of Predestination in Calvin's Institutes: A Critical Assessment of the relationship between predestination and the theme of Book Three.”
Dale Harris, “A Stranger Love: Hospitality as a Response to Homosexuality in the Church.”

2017 Wesley Symposium and Ministry Conference

Audio from the 2017 event is available here.

Ben Witherington III, keynote addresses on "The Authority and Character of Scripture" and "The Ethics of Jesus Revisited" (3 parts)
Panel Discussion, "Scripture and Authority in the Local Church Today." The participants are David McMaster (moderator, Tyndale Wesley Studies Committee), Natalie Frisk (Brethren in Christ), Albert Jebanesan (Tamil Christian Church), Wendy Johnstone (Salvation Army), Gordon McCann (Church of the Nazarene) and Steve Ottley (Church of the Nazarene).
Aimee Patterson, “A New Final Enemy: Reflections on Dying, Suffering and Autonomy.”
Dan Cooper, “Breakdown in Babylon: an exploration of Psalm 137 through the lens of metal culture.”
Grant Gordon, “John Newton Encounters John Wesley: The Untold Story.”
Gerhard Mielke, “What motivated Wesleyan Holiness Women of the 19th and early 20th century to preach?”
Aaron Perry, “Ethics, Theology, and Leadership: A Review of the Current State of Ethical Leadership and Why Theology can Make a Contribution”

2016 Wesleyan-Pentecostal Symposium

Media files from the 2016 event are available here.

Donald W. Dayton, Keynote Lecture
Bradley Truman Noel, “Experiential Verification: The Pentecostal Advantage in Hermeneutics?”
John Vlainic, “How a Theology of Experience Shows Up in Pastoral Care.”
James E. Read, “‘Whatever it is which reason or experience shows’: Experience in a Wesleyan approach to ethics”
Stephen J. Bedard, “Experience as Christian Apologetics.”
Justin Schwartz, “Objectivity is the Fruit of Subjectivity: Experience as a Fundamental Category for Theology in the work of Bernard Lonergan”
Janelle Zeeb, “Comparing Arminianism and Open Theism on Theodicy: An Example of How Experience Affects our Preferences for Theological Systems”
Peter D. Neumann, “Pentecostal Mediated Immediacy: Overcoming Experience of God as Ecumenical Barrier”
James E. Pedlar, “Experiential Christianity in Canada at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: Three Wesleyan Examples.”

2015 Wesley Symposium

Keynote: Kevin Mannoia (Asuza Pacific University), “New Vocabulary for Holy Living in the 21st Century."
James T. Robertson, “For God, King, and Country: Methodists and Interpreting the War of 1812”
Todd Webb, “‘Too great to be forgiven’: James Everett's clandestine war against Jabez Bunting and the Buntingites”
Sandra King, “The 1857 Hamilton, Ontario Revival: An exploration of the Layman’s Revival and The Second Great Awakening.” [Sandra's book on the subject is now available]
Adam Kline, "'Let Us Make Man in Our Image': the Divine Nature and the Narrative that is Its Substance."

2014 Wesley Symposium

Keynote: Michael A. G. Haykin, “‘The Revived Puritan’: The Life and Piety of George Whitefield”
Clair MacMillan, “Creating and Sustaining Christian Culture and Conscience: A Challenge for the Church”
Darren Schmidt, “Methodism Writ Large? Wesley's Ecclesiastical History (1781) and Methodist Identity”
Michael Tapper, “Trinitarian Beliefs and Musical Expression among Canadian Holiness Churches”
Dan Sheffield, “Genuine Christianity: Wesleyan Theology and Praxis in a Multicultural Society”
Rebecca Nicol, “Phoebe Palmer’s Theology: Is it Compatible with Wesleyan Thought?”
Dale Harris, “The Clean Slate: Reading Romans 5 with a Wesleyan Lens”
Leonard Chester, “When the Fire Fell” (on the BIC’s Wesleyan connections)
Book panel: Lift Up A Standard: The Life and Legacy of Ralph C. Horner. James Robertson, James Pedlar, Laurence Croswell, Mark Croswell, Peter Rigby [laurence [dot] croswell [at] yahoo [dot] com (subject: Lift%20Up%20a%20Standard) (contact the author for a copy) of Lift Up a Standard]

2013 Wesley Symposium

Keynote: Donald E. Burke, "Salvation for Both Worlds: Contours of a Wesleyan/Biblical Social Theology"
Cliff Fletcher, "Rediscovering Discipleship as a Pathway to Ekklesial Reformation - Wesley did!"
Barry Hamilton, "The Importance of Richard Watson's Theological Institutes for Methodist History." [see Dr. Hamilton's book on this subject]
Aaron Perry, "Leading with the Ear: the Church as a Listening Community."
Niven Harrichand, "The Character of God Revealed by the Incarnate Word in the Theology of John Wesley."
Amy Caswell Bratton, "Witnesses of Perfect Love: Narratives of Christian Perfection in Early Methodism." [see also the book by the same title]

2012 Wesley Symposium

Keynote: Victor A. Shepherd, "Wesley as Theologian and Leader in the Universal Church."
Rick Hiemstra, "Statistical Profile of the Wesleyan Community in Canada." [published version, Church and Faith Trends]
Wendy Swan, "Graced Practices of the Salvation Army."
Dan Sheffield, "Herbert E. Randall: From Canadian Holiness Missionary to Pentecostal Leader." [published version, Canadian Journal of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity]
Jeffrey McPherson, "The Role of the Holy Spirit in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley."
Mark Schnell, "Toward a Wesleyan Holiness Homiletic."

2011 Wesley Symposium

Keynote: Kenneth Newport, "Charles Wesley: Priest, Poet and Theologian."
David Rainey, "The Future of Wesleyan Theology with a Missional Agenda."
Rob Clements, "The Quest for the Historical Wesley: An Analysis of the Earliest Biographies (1791-1825)."
Marlon Deblasio, "Conversion, Justification, and the Experience of Grace in the Post-Aldersgate Wesley."
Mike Tapper, "Assessing Social Sin: A Critical Task in Contemporary Methodism."
J. Andrew Edwards, "The Wesleyan Transformation of the Public Sphere: Musical and Moral Perfection in Early Methodism."

2010 Wesley Symposium

Amy Caswell Bratton, "The Story of Christian Perfection: The Perfection Narrative of George Clark and Other Friends of John Wesley." [See her book, Witnesses of Perfect Love]
Chad Short, "John Wesley and N. T. Wright in Dialogue."
Bob Munshaw, "'Be Thorough, But Be in Haste': Impetus and Self-Understanding of Mission in the Early Free Methodist Church."
Howard Olver, "A Theology for Reaching the City."
James Watson, "Social Science Methodology for Multiethnic Church Planting."
Matt McEwen, "Wesley and the Environment: A Sacramental View."

2009 Wesley Symposium

David Walls, "The Influence of the Eastern Fathers on John Wesley's Theology."
Rob Clements, "Prophets, Priests, and the People of God: Ecclesiology in the Wesleyan-Methodist Tradition, 1743-1925."
James E. Pedlar, "Sensing the Spirit: Wesley's Empiricism and his Use of the Language of Spiritual Sensation." [published version in the Asbury Journal]
Chris Payk, "Prevenient Grace in Wesley: Missiological Insights." [see Payk's book, Grace First]