Sunday Spotlight: Protestant Thought

In partnership with the John Templeton Foundation, First Things is launching a newsletter about the Protestant movement in America. Dale Coulter, a longtime contributor, will author The Protestant Mind. From the archive, three of Coulter’s articles on mercy, the international spread of Pentecostalism, and the formation of Wesleyans.

FROM OCTOBER 2017

Works of Mercy

DALE M. COULTER

The extension of mercy in the name of Christ loosens the bonds of desire to earthly things that will be lost anyway. Acts of mercy are painful and purgative, requiring the believer to become a sacrifice rather than demand sacrifice from his neighbor.

FROM FEBRUARY 2011

The Cosmopolitan Nature of Pentecostalism

DALE M. COULTER

While global missionary networks within Protestantism provided the transnational conduits to carry the message, it was and is a spirituality that emphasizes prosperity, empowerment, and deliverance that sustains its growth.

FROM SEPTEMBER 2016

Wesleyans and the Reformation

DALE M. COULTER

The themes of the reform within English Christianity have become the themes Wesleyans tend to hold dear: the idea that grace comes in many forms, being adapted to the human condition; that the spiritual life is the center, and theology must serve it; and that the church as a community must guard sound doctrine.