Since "The expulsion of B.T. Roberts and others from the Genesee Conference", "Methodism . . . has tended to be more comfortable with a big-tent vision for Methodism than with wrestling with the details and boundaries that are necessary in order for there to be a theological tradition."Kevin M. Watson, Old or New School Methodism?: The fragmentation of a theological tradition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 280, 284, underscoring mine. The headline is from p. 283.
"There was a recognizable theological tradition in American Methodism from the first Methodists who traveled from Britain to the British Colonies that would become the United States of America in the 1760s until the 1850s. The particularities of that tradition were largely articulated by John Wesley’s preaching and writing, which stated that the mission of Methodism was to 'spread scriptural holiness.' Throughout this period of time there was a formal commitment in the Doctrines and Discipline of the Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as other denominations formed subsequent to the MEC, to the doctrine of entire sanctification, or Christian perfection. American Methodism was also committed to a set of practices that would 'raise up a holy people'" (278, underscoring mine).
