Book Review Tuesday: Special Collection Exhibit

Palmer, Walter C., M.D.  Life and letters of Leonidas L. Hamline, D.D., late one of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church. . . .  New York:  Published by Carlton & Porter, 200 Mulberry-Street, 1866.

A month in which we have been reminded that the papacy, at least (if not, as in Methodism, the episcopacy), is an office, not an order, seems a good month to remember “Elder” Leonidas Lent Hamline (1797-1865), important for many reasons other than his precedent-setting resignation, not least his articulation of the principle that General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church had the constitutional authority to suspend a  bishop for slaveholding; the contribution he made to the foundation of Hamline University; and the support he gave to the Holiness revival led by Phoebe Worrall Palmer (1807-1874). This copy of the 1866 Life by Phoebe’s husband Walter (1804-1883) was given to the father of German-American Methodism, William Nast (1807-1899), by Leonidas P. Hamline, a son of the former bishop. It was given to Seattle Pacific by Dr. William Kostlevy.

– Steve Perisho,Theology and Philosophy Librarian

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