8. The decline of Methodism

Abstract

A report, Statistics in Mission, issued in 2014 tracked the decline of Methodists in Britain over a ten-year period. It showed a 3.7 per cent year-on-year decline and a reduction of 29.35 per cent overall. This decline is part of the wider decline of Christianity in the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic world. Although not as bad, a similar story is seen in the United States. ‘The decline of Methodism’ considers the various theories for this decline—including the increased secularization in the West and the intellectual changes in British culture with the rise of science—and some of the solutions proposed by the Methodist church to resolve the problem.