Nathan Bangs

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Nathan Bangs

Nathan Bangs (2 May 1778 – 3 May 1862) was an American

theologian in the Methodist tradition and influential leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church
prior to the 1860s.

Born in

Bishop Asbury would not assign non-volunteers. Bangs volunteered to be assigned to Canada, as there was a desperate need for volunteers.[3] The war prevented Bangs from reaching his assignment, however, and Bangs instead was made Presiding Elder of the Croton Circuit in Delaware, while Thomas Burch went to the Montreal Circuit instead.[4][5]
In subsequent years, he took a prominent part in the councils of the church.

In 1820, he was transferred from a pastorate in New York to become the Senior Book Agent of the Methodist Book Concern. Although the Concern was first founded in 1798 under

Methodist Magazine. In 1828 he was appointed editor of the Christian Advocate
(though he had been functioning as its unofficial editor since its inception in 1826). When the Methodist Quarterly Review replaced the Methodist Magazine in 1832, the General Conference continued Bangs in the editorship.

Bangs was the principal founder and secretary of the Methodist missionary society. When appointed secretary of the missionary society in 1836, he devoted his chief energies to its service, until appointed president of the Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Connecticut, in 1841. Surprisingly,[citation needed] that proved to be a disappointment to everyone and in 1842 Bangs resumed pastoral work in New York, and in 1852 retired and employed himself during his remaining years chiefly in literary labors. Although his career was an illustrious one,[citation needed] Bangs's reputation suffered badly when he failed to support Methodist abolitionists at the General Conference of 1844. Abel Stevens published a lengthy biography of Bangs one year after his death in 1862.

Bangs defended

prevenient grace but not at the expense of total depravity. He argued that because of grace, humankind does have the ability to respond to God. He also opposed the antinomianism
practiced by some rival members of the New Light Baptist community.

His most important work[citation needed] was a History of the Methodist Episcopal Church from its Origin in 1776 to the General Conference of 1840 (4 volumes, New York, 1839–42). His other published works were a volume directed against Christianism, a new sect in New England (1809); Errors of Hopkinsianism (1815); Predestination Examined (1817); Reformer Reformed (1818); Methodist Episcopacy (1820); Letters to Young Ministers of the Gospel (1826); Life of the Rev. Freeborn Garrettson (1829); Authentic History of the Missions Under the Care of the Methodist Episcopal Church (1832); The Original Church of Christ (1836); Essay on Emancipation (1848); State and Responsibilities of the Methodist Episcopal Church (1850); Letters on Sanctification (1851); a Life of Arminius; Scriptural Vindication of the Orders and Powers of the Ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church; and numerous sermons.

Notes

  1. ^ Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events of the year: 1862. New York: D. Appleton & Company. 1863. p. 666.
  2. ^ Carroll, volume I, page 259
  3. ^ Carroll, volume I, page 271
  4. ^ Carroll, volume I, page 272
  5. ^ Warriner (1885), 242

Resources

Biography

Sources

Bibliography

Academic offices
Preceded by President of Wesleyan University
1841–1842 		Succeeded by
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