Taking Heaven by Storm - Book Report/Review Example

Consequently, this paper will provide the thesis or main point of Wigger’s book Taking Heaven by Storm. Furthermore, the paper will analyse how the author proves and supports the book’s thesis. Finally, I will provide an extensive critique of Wigger’s work in Taking Heaven by Storm. The expansion of interest into previously neglected religious groups has been one of the most exciting developments in the United States history. The current trends which are centred on religious historiography provide an inkling and a new additional perspective on the many denominations that prospered during the early American republic.

Wigger, A student of hatch, based his book on the early years of Methodists in America. The studys main point was to figure out how and why the Methodist denomination prospered abundantly in early America. Wigger tried to answer the question, how did the Methodist denomination swell from a membership of less than one thousand to over two fifty thousand members in the fifty-year range after 1770? Wigger supports his thesis by relying on his mentor for his conceptual framework. However, he advances beyond hatch’s ideological thrust to list a variety of organizational, interpersonal and cultural factors that propelled the Methodists to flourish.

His timeframe overlapped with Francis Asbury’s ministry. Asbury was posted to America in 1771 by John Wesley and served as the first bishop of American Methodist Episcopal Church from 1784 to his demise in 1816. Wiggers answer to his question is that the popularity of early Methodist rose because it was ‘of the people. To come up with this answer, wigger primarily used the journal and memoirs of Methodist circuit riders. Additionally, he uses institutional records to support his thesis. Wigger uses the first chapters of his book Taking Heaven by Storm to explore the various factors behind the Methodists’ popularity.

Chapter one recapitulates the