Sources & Guides

What sources exist for researching Nazarene history and life? And what materials are available for the study of the broader Wesleyan-holiness movement of which the Church of the Nazarene is a part? The links on the left side of your screen will take you to bibliographies and archival guides pertaining to the Wesleyan-holiness movement and the Church of the Nazarene.

The Wesleyan–holiness movement bibliography was developed for a seminary course on the “History of the American Holiness Movement.” Many of the books listed are in print and can be ordered through local bookstores. If you live in the United States or Canada, you can obtain many of these books through the interlibrary loan services of your local library. Most of the periodical literature listed was published in either the Wesleyan Theological Journal or Methodist History. These journals are available in many colleges, universities, and seminaries, including those associated with the Church of the Nazarene.

The Nazarene Women and Religion bibliography lists published and unpublished sources related to women in Nazarene life. Many of the books listed are out of print but can be obtained through interlibrary loan. And the bibliography includes descriptions of women’s archives collections maintained by the Nazarene Archives in Kansas City, Missouri.

Rescue the Perishing, Care for the Dying: Second Edition is an online edition of a booklet first published in 1985 and revised in 1998 in conjunction with Nazarene Compassionate Ministry conferences. The booklet describes the contents of Archives collections pertaining to Nazarene social ministries from the beginning of the denomination through the present. As you scroll through the listings, you may be surprised at how many social ministries have been part of Nazarene life.

The Historiography of Timothy L. Smith: A Chronological Bibliography. Most Nazarenes know Timothy L. Smith as “the dean of Nazarene church historians.” But Smith’s influence on the study of American religion was far broader than that. He gathered a core of dedicated evangelical historians who influenced the next generation of evangelical scholars and fostered the emergence of evangelical studies as a dynamic field of inquiry within the broader discipline of religious history. Smith also challenged his colleagues within the American Society of Church History with a series of articles in the areas of revivalism and its impact on social change, the influence of race and ethnicity in shaping American Protestantism, the relationship between Protestantism and higher education, and the critical role of sectarian diversity within the Middle Atlantic states as the seedbed of American religious freedom. The range of Smith’s scholarship is evident in the following bibliography, prepared by Floyd W. Cunningham, academic dean of Asia–Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary, and one of Smith’s former students.