What motivates people to work for justice? Recent studies have moved away from an emphasis on specific principles and toward an understanding of social and cultural forces. But what about times in history when distinct ideas were critical for positive change? The pre-Civil War abolitionist movement represents one such time. During an era when race-based slavery was buttressed by the machinery of civil law, many people developed arguments for freedom and equity that were grounded in divine ...

"O where are the sympathies of Christians for the slave and where are their exertions for their liberation? . . . It seems as if the church were asleep."David Ingraham, 1839In 2015, the historian Chris Momany helped discover a manuscript that had been forgotten in a storage closet at Adrian College in Michigan. He identified it as the journal of a nineteenth-century Christian abolitionist and missionary, David Ingraham. As Momany and a fell...

Christianity in its purest form involves putting God’s love into action. Wesleyans have traditionally understood this embodiment and expression of God’s love as holiness.• Four-session guide helps individuals and small groups understand and embrace the Wesleyan understanding of holiness• Explores the Wesleyan approach to both law and grace• Guides individuals to match faith with action• Provides Christian educators with a tool for teaching an important Wesleyan...

In 2015, the historian Chris Momany helped discover a manuscript that had been forgotten in a storage closet at Adrian College in Michigan. He identified it as the journal of a nineteenth-century Christian abolitionist and missionary, David Ingraham. As Momany and a fellow historian Doug Strong pored over the diary, they realized that studying this document could open new conversations for twenty-first-century Christians to address the reality of racism today. They invited a multiracial te...