A number of prestigious awards will be given scholars at the 46^th annual Wesleyan Theological Society meeting March 3-5, 2011 at Southern Methodist University.

The society confers its 2011 Life-time Achievement Award to pastor and scholar, Howard A. Snyder (see photo). Dr. Snyder currently is Distinguished Professor and Chair of Wesley Studies at Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto, Canada. He came to Tyndale in 2007 from Asbury Seminary where he had served for 10 years as Professor of the History and Theology of Mission in the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism. Previously he had taught at United Theological Seminary and pastored in Chicago, Detroit, and São Paulo, Brazil, where he was also a seminary professor.

His numerous books include The Problem of Wineskins (1975, rev. ed., 2005), The Community of the King (1977; rev. ed., 2004), The Radical Wesley and Patterns for Church Renewal (1980), and EarthCurrents: The Struggle for the World’s Soul (1995). Recent works include Populist Saints: B. T. and Ellen Roberts and the First Free Methodists (2006) and Live While You Preach: The Autobiography of Methodist Revivalist and Abolitionist John Wesley Redfield (1810–1863), which he edited (2006). Dr. Snyder frequently speaks around the world, including at the 1974 International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, the 1991 Evangelism 2000 Conference in Hong Kong, and the Mission Korea 2000 Conference in Seoul.  Dr. Snyder is an ecumenicist, missiologist, ethicist, and Wesley scholar, a man honored worldwide.

The 2011 Smith/Wynkoop Book Award goes to John Wigger for his book American Saint: Francis Asbury and the Methodists (see photo). It is Wigger’s contention that Francis Asbury’s significance in American culture extends well beyond his premier status within the Methodist tradition.While Asbury was a figure of authority among Methodists, he internalized and exemplified the ideals of the new American nation in various ways. Asbury was a major figure in the evolution of American Christianity, setting American Methodists on a course that altered the religious landscape of the 19th and 20th centuries. Asbury set the pace for early American Methodists, and soon Methodists were setting the pace for other sectors of American Protestantism. Thus, Asbury was more than simply a Methodist saint; he was truly an “American” saint.

The 2011 Outstanding Dissertation award goes to Brent Peterson for his Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary thesis, “A Post-Wesleyan Eucharistic Ecclesiology: The Renewal of the Church as the Body of Christ to be Doxologically Broken and Spilled Out for the World.” Petersons’ work recovers, pushes against, and broadens the Wesleyan tradition by intersecting a eucharistic theology and ecclesiology.

The award-winning dissertation argues that healing is offered in the Eucharist. Christ’s presence renews the union between Christ and the church. The presence of Christ in the Eucharist invites and empowers the Church to receive this healing. As a result, God renews and remakes it as the body of Christ. The Church is then sent out to embody the ministry of the incarnation in the world. Peterson is an Associate Professor of Theology at Northwest Nazarene University and ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene.

The 2011 Pastor-Preacher-Scholar Award goes to Dr. Major JoAnn Shade of the Salvation Army.  Dr. Major JoAnn Shade ministers with her husband Larry, as the corps officers at the Ashland, Ohio Salvation Army.  As a native of western New York, she was ordained in the Salvation Army in 1978. She received a B.A. in sociology from S.U.N.Y at Binghamton, a M.A. in Pastoral Counseling, and a Doctor of Ministry degree from Ashland Theological Seminary in June, 2006, in the “Women in Prophetic Leadership” track. Her dissertation, entitled “Wondering and Wandering: Vocational Identity and Direction for Women Clergy at Midlife consisted of the development of a directed journal for women based upon the Hagar narrative in Genesis 16 and 21.

Recently Dr. Shade has been involved in developing new programming within the Salvation Army including LINCS, an intensive program for women leaving welfare, Marriage Tools, a program that teaches practical marital skills, SafetyNet, a program for chronically homeless men, ACCESS, a church‑based homeless assistance program, and TALK, a mediation program.She served with The Salvation Army in the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster as a counselor at the Medical Examiner¹s Officer (morgue) and in the one‑stop

social service office on Worth Street in lower Manhattan.

The WTS 2011 conference will be held March 3-5 at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. Registration and other information is available at the society website:  http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyan-theological-societyMeeting chair, Elaine Heath, has chosen the conference theme, “Empire, Church, Missio Dei.” Plenary addresses will be offered by Miroslav Volf and society president Rob W. Wall.  Wesleyan philosophical and psychological societies will meet during the day on March 2.

CONTACT:

Brent D. Peterson, Ph.D.
Promotional Secretary
Wesleyan Theological Society
Northwest Nazarene University
Phone: 208-467-8018
Fax: 208-467-8252
bdpeterson@nnu.edu