Beginning with this meeting, selection for full membership in the Institute was tied to making a presentation in either a plenary session or a working group.

The Call for Proposals for presentations was published in OXFORDnotes1.4
An initial description of working groups was published in OXFORDnotes1.6
Final reports for the working groups can be found in OXFORDnotes2.1

1. CURRENT BIBLICAL CRITICISM and METHODIST TEACHING

Conveners: Phyllis Bird & Peder Borgen

Presentations:

Birch, Bruce. “Biblical Theology: Issues in Authority and Hermeneutics” (published inWesleyan Theology Today, edited by Theodore Runyon [Nashville: Kingswood, 1985], 127-33).
Bird, Phyllis. Discussion of teaching the Bible in Methodist/Wesleyan seminaries.
Borgen, Peder. “Biblical Authority and the Authenticity of the Church in Relationship to Auxiliary Keys such as Reason, Experience, and Social Context” (published in Epworth Review 8 [1981]: 72-81; and in Norwegian as “Fornuftens, erfaringens og den sosiale konteksts rolle i relasjon til Skriftens autoritet,” Nordisk ekumenisk årsbok [1980/1981]: 35-48).
Hecke, Karl-Heinz. “The Use and Authority of the Old Testament in Methodist Teaching.”
Hoyt, Thomas. “Biblical Hermeneutics, Christian and African-American: Presuppositions Undergirding a Black Biblical Hermeneutic” (incorporated in “Interpreting Biblical Scholarship for the Black Church Tradition,” Cain Hope Felder, ed., Stony the road we trod: African American biblical interpretation [Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991], 17–39.)
Klaiber, Walter. “Is There a Methodist Exegesis?” (published as “Gibt es eine methodistische Exegese?” Theologie für die Praxis 18.1 [1998]: 1-13).
Lull, David. “Liberation and Feminist Biblical Hermeneutics and the Renewal of the Mission Church in the Wesleyan Tradition.”
Minnick, C. P. Discussion of biblical arguments in and about the document “In Defense of Creation: The Nuclear Crisis and a Just Peace.”
Padgett, Alan J. “Methodists on the Bible: A Select Bibliography.” OXFORDnotes 2.5 (Spring 1991): 5-7.
Ramirez, Dagoberto. “He Taught Them by Parables: Theological Education and Popular Education.”
Ringe, Sharon. “Reading from Context to Context: Contributions of a Feminist Hermeneutic to Theologies of Liberation” (published in Lift Every Voice, edited by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite & Mary Potter Engel [San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1990], 283-91).
Svanberg, Lars. “The Charismatic Challenge.”

Other Participants/Respondents in Group:

Beck, Brian E.
Dinis, Emanuel
Howcroft, Kenneth G.
Ireblad, Tord
Lo, Lung Kwong
Mogabgab, John S.
Newsom, Carol A.
Niles, H. Clifton
Palmer, David G.
Ruhnow, Wolfgang
Sampley, J. Paul

2. WESLEY STUDIES: What and How Did John Wesley Teach?

Conveners: Richard P. Heitzenrater & Thomas Langford

Presentations:

Brantley, Richard E. “Wesley and Edwards’ Religious Affections” (published as “The Common Ground of Wesley and Edwards,” Harvard Theological Review 83 [1990]: 271-303).
Campbell, Ted. “Tradition as a Religious Authority” (cf. “The Interpretive Role of Tradition,” in Wesley and the Quadrilateral: Renewing the Conversation, W. Stephen Gunter et al. [Nashville: Abingdon, 1997], 63-75).
Clapper, Gregory. “The Practical Theology of John Wesley’s Orthoaffectus” (published as “Orthokardia: The Practical Theology of John Wesley’s Heart Religion,” Quarterly Review10.1 [1990]: 49-66).
Dicker, Gordon S. “Wesley and Luther on the Christian Life.”
Ewers, Duane. “Wesley and Education.”
Heitzenrater, Richard P. “Plain Truth: Sermons as Standards of Doctrine” (published inDrew Gateway 57 [1987]: 16-30).
Hulley, Leonard D. “An Interpretation of John Wesley’s Doctrine of Perfect Love” (published in Theologia Evangelica 23.1 [1990]: 21-29).
Jones, Scott J. “John Wesley’s Doctrine of Scriptural Authority” (preliminary work towardJohn Wesley’s Conception and Use of Scripture [Nashville: Kingswood, 1995]).
Lim, Isaac. “Preaching and the Small Group Ministry” (published in Asia Journal of Theology 3 [1989]: 509-23).
MacCormack, James T. “New Testament Notes as Doctrinal Authority” (published as “The Forgotten Notes of John Wesley,” Irish Biblical Studies 8 [1986]: 22-42).
McEllhenney, John G. “John Wesley’s Principles of Scriptural Interpretation.”
Meistad, Tore. “Martin Luther and John Wesley on the Sermon on the Mount” (published inContext: Essays in Honour of Peder Borgen, edited by P.W. Bøckmann & R. Kristiansen [Trondheim, Norway: Tapir, 1987], 137-51).
Streiff, Patrick Philipp. “Methodist Theology in the 18th Century: Its Basic Structures, with the Background of Other Theological (Calvinism) and Philosophical (Enlightenment) Concepts; A Case Study of Fletcher of Madeley (1729–85).”
Tyson, John R. “Wesley’s Essential Doctrines” (published as “Essential Doctrines and Real Religion: Theological Method in Wesley’s Sermons on Several Occasions,” Wesleyan Theological Journal 23 [1988]: 163-79).

Other Participants/Respondents in Group:

Bellamy, Elizbeth J.
Borgen, Ole
Brockwell, Charles
Gunter, W. Stephen
Hale, Joe
Josgrilberg, Rui de Souza
Kirby, James
Matthews, Rex
Monk, Robert
Nacpil, Emerito
Snyder, Howard
Weyer, Michel

3. METHODIST TEACHING and SOCIAL & ECONOMIC ISSUES of the NINETEENTH CENTURY

Conveners: Donald Dayton & W. Reginald Ward

Presentations:

Bassett, Paul. “The Influence of Revivalism on the ‘Folk Theology’ of the American Holiness Movement.”
Brown, Joanne Carlson. “Earnestly Striving For It: The Role and Understanding of Wesley’s Concept of Christian Perfection in 19th Century American Methodism” (cf. “So that Heart Purity might Rule the Land,” Theodore Runyon, ed., Wesleyan Theology Today [Nashville,TN: United Methodist Publishing House, 1985], 161–69).
Bundy, David. “Bishop William Taylor and Methodist Mission: A Study in 19th Century Social History” (published in two parts in Methodist History 27 [1988-89]: 197-210 & 28 [1989-90]: 3-21).
Dieter, Melvin E. “The Significance of the Holiness movement in 19th Century Methodism.”
O’Malley, J. Steven. “A Distinctive German-American Credo: The United Brethren Confession of Faith” (published in Asbury Theological Journal 42.1 [1987]: 51-64).
Richey, Russell E. “The Southern Accent of American Methodism” (published in Methodist History 27 [1988-89):3-24).
Roberts, J. Deotis. “Faith in God Confronts Collective Evils” (published in Search for Faith and Justice in the Twentieth Century, edited by Gene James [New York: Paragon House, 1987], 15-27).
Ward, W. Reginald. “The Way of the World: The Rise and Decline of Protestant Social Christianity in Britain” (published in Kirchliche Zeitgeschichte 1 [1988]: 293-305; reprinted in Faith and Faction [London: Epworth, 1993], 301-307).
Yrigoyen, Charles. “Methodists and Roman Catholics in 19th Century America” (published in Methodist History 28.3 [1990]: 172-86).

Other Participants/Respondents in Group:

Carvalho, Emilio J. M. de
Dunlap, E. Dale
Grove, William Boyd
Groves, Martin L.
Gúzman, Aníbal
Nthamburi, Rosemary
Schmidt, Jean Miller
Smith, Timothy L.
Tedcastle, R. Gerald
Topolewski, John L.
Trickett, David
Wakefield, Gordon S.
Weissbach, Albrecht

4. METHODIST ECONOMIC and SOCIAL TEACHINGS and the
CHALLENGE of LIBERATION THEOLOGY

Conveners: Philip Wogaman & José Míguez-Bonino

Presentations:

Boots, Nora. “The Challenge of Liberation Theology to the World Methodist Community” (cf. “The Wesleyan Tradition and Latin American Theology,” Apuntes 5 [1985]: 9-15).
Brown, Delwin. “A Methodological Analysis of Liberation Theology” (published as “Thinking About the God of the Poor,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 57 [1989]: 267-81).
Couture, Pamela. “Love and Justice in Wesley.”
Duckworth, Brian. “Contribution of Liberation Theology to the Social Witness of the World Methodist Council.”
Jennings, Theodore. “Wesley’s Evangelical Economics: an Agenda for the Methodists” (preliminary work toward Good News to the Poor: John Wesley’s Evangelical Economics[Nashville: Abingdon, 1990]).
Mattos, Pablo Ayres. “The Challenge of International Economic Order.”
Mosala, Itumeleng. “Methodist Peace Witness and Revolutionary Violence” (cf. “Wesley Read from the Experience of Social and Political Deprivation in South Africa,” Journal of Theology for Southern Africa 68 [1989]: 86-91).
Nicholson, Jean. “Social Reform and Social Revolution: A Methodist Reappraisal in the Light of Liberation Theology.”
Roeder, Thomas. “A Biblical Understanding of the ‘Preferential Option for the Poor.'”
Sano, Roy. “Justification by Faith and the Work of Social Transformation.”
Summers, Howard. “A Methodist Assessment of the Kairos Document.”
Weber, Theodore. “Breaking the Power of Cancelled Sin: Possibilities and Limits in a Wesleyan Social Theology” (published in Quarterly Review 11.1 [1991]:4-21).
Weir, Emmette. “The Wesleyan Concern for Human Welfare and the Liberationist Concept of Salvation.”
Wogaman, Philip. “A Wesleyan Doctrine of Creation and Competing Economic Ideologies.”

Other Participants/Respondents in Group:

Harvey, Louis-Charles
Jacob, Emmanuel
Khan, Kenrick
Meeks, M. Douglas
Panizo-Valladares, Rosanna
Pressley, Arthur
Reed, Esther D.
Sells, Ray
Souza, José Carlos de.
Stuart, William J.
Vincent, John
Woodley, Alan

5. METHODIST EVANGELISM and DOCTRINE

Conveners: David Lowes Watson & Lawi Imathiu

Presentations (OXFORDnotes2.3):

Abraham, William. “The Gospel and Eschatology” (published as Chapter Two in The Logic of Evangelism [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989], 17-39).
Campbell, Dennis. Response to “Laos: The Relationship of the Ministries of the People of God” (Faith and Order Advisory Group of the Church of England, 1987).
Crandall, Ronald King. “The Crusillo/Walk to Emmaus Movement: A Case Study” (published in Journal of the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education 4 [1988-89]: 56-65).
Cushman, Robert E. “Orthodoxy, Paradox, and Experimental Divinity” (read in Cushman’s absence from Institute; published as “Orthodoxy and Wesley’s Experimental Divinity,” Quarterly Review 8.2 [1988]: 71-89; and in John Wesley’s Experimental Divinity [Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1989], 86-100).
Doraisamy, Theodore. “Motives of Mission in Methodism in Singapore and Malaysia from 1885 to 1985” (cf. What Hath God Wrought: Motives of Mission from Wesley to Thoburn[Singapore: Methodist Book Room, 1983]).
Evans, G. R. “Consensus and Reception” (published in proceedings volume).
Fox, H. Eddie. “Faith Sharing is God’s Idea” (published as Chapter One of Faith-Sharing: Dynamic Christian Witnessing by Invitation [Nashville: Discipleship Resources, 1986]).
Guerra, Israel Batista. “Reading Methodist Theology from a Socio-Economic Perspective: The Presence of the ‘Church of the Poor’ in Methodist Heritage.” (Paper read in Guerra’s absence by D. Kirkpatrick.)
Hunter, George C. “Where are our People, and What are They doing There?” (published in expanded form as How to Reach Secular People [Nashville: Abingdon, 1992]).
Jackson, Michael. Response to “The Mission of The United Methodist Church” (Draft of report to 1988 General Conference).
Kirkpatrick, Dow. “Radical Spirituality: South Africa and Latin America.”
Kristiansen, Roald E. “Ethics and Emptiness: The Challenge of Doing Theology in a Buddhist Context” (published in Japanese Religions 16.4 [1991]: 14-31).
Spence, Terence. “Youth Evangelism in Village Methodism.”
Spencer-Miller, Althea D. “The Evangelism of Jamaican Methodism: Historical Method and Message.”
Tuttle, Robert G. “Law and Grace: A Wesleyan Approach to Evangelism.”
Tu’uholoaki, Finau. “Sanctification in Contextual Evangelism.”
Watson, David Lowes. “Justification by Faith and the Shaping of Wesley’s Evangelistic Message” (published in Wesleyan Theological Journal 21 [1986]: 7-23).

Other Participants/Respondents in Group:

Cain, Richard W.
Chilcote, Paul
Dixon, Ernest T. Jr.
Forward, Martin H.
Gassmann, Gunther
Imathiu, Lawi
Nthamburi, Zablon
Oduyoye, Mercy Amba
Ruiz, Avila Raul
Thomas, (Tom) Howe Octavius
Thompson, Kenneth H.
Villegas, Rolando Villena
Waitzmann, Martin
Wladar, Antonia

6. CONTEMPORARY METHODIST THEOLOGY and DOCTRINAL CONSENSUS

Conveners: Theodore Runyon & Norman Young

Presentations:

Bondi, Roberta. “The Meeting of Oriental Orthodoxy and United Methodism” (published inChrist in East and West, edited by Paul Fries [Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1997], 171-84).
Cannon, William R. “The Future of Methodist Theological Traditions.”
George, Raymond. “Tradition: Yet another Look.”
Gibbins, Olive. “Consensus and Integrity.”
Gros, Jeffrey. “Contemporary Methodist Theology and Doctrinal Consensus.”
Khoo, Lorna Lock-Nah.“Distinctive Christian Witness Made by Methodists in S.E. Asia.”
Maddox, Randy. “A Wesleyan Perspective on ‘Confessing the Apostolic Faith.'”
Marquardt, Manfred. “An Attempt to Describe the Core of Methodist Doctrine from a German Perspective.”
Míguez-Bonino, José. “Sanctification: A Latin-American Rereading” (published in Faith born in the Struggle for Life, edited by Dow Kirkpatrick [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988], 15-25).
Míguez-Bonino, José. “Was Methodism a Liberation Movement?” (published as “¿Fue el Metodismo un movimiento liberador?” in La Tradición Protestante en la Teología Latinoamericana, edited by José Duque [San Jose, Costa Rica: DEI, 1983], 63-73).
Monti, Emilio N.“Orthodoxy and Orthopraxis in Tradition.”
Outler, Albert C. “The Sense of Tradition in the Ante-Nicene Church” (published in The Heritage of Christian Thought, edited by Robert Cushman & Egil Grislis [New York: Harper & Row, 1965], 8-30).
Prochazka, Pavel. “An Account of the Methodist Witness in Czechoslovakia.”
Runyon, Ted. “Is the Creed Orthodox?” (OXFORDnotes1.5)
Wood, D’Arcy.“The Future Contribution of Methodism to Australian Church Life.”
Young, Norman. “The Significance of Methodist Thought and Practice for Confessing the Apostolic Faith.”

Other Participants/Respondents in Group:

Araya Guillén, Victorio
Hall, Thor
Herzog, Frederick
Jones, Ezra Earl
Moore, Mary Elizabeth
Pickard, Donald A.
Rowe, B. Keith
Rowe, Trevor T.
Stephens, W. Peter
Treese, Donald
Verheyden, Jack
Wainwright, Geoffrey
Wiltsher, Christopher D.