A scene from the Leben der heiligen Altväter (1482)

Journal Articles & Book Chapters

The Inward Witnessand Other Discourses

Seventeen chapters, 296 pages. “Most of these Discourses were officially delivered, as they severally show, on important occasions; and their publication is in a certain sense matter of duty. A few have been added in deference…

“William Burt Pope, D.D.” in Methodist Worthies

A substantial biographical entry (14 pages) published during Pope’s lifetime. Stevenson provides a fuller account of Pope’s 20 years of church ministry than any other source. There are a few loose statements that are hard to…

A Higher Catechism of Theology

389pp. Much to say about this book! Pope’s Higher Catechism was translated into Welsh in 1905 as Uch-Holwyddorydd Diwinyddol.

Ezra and Nehemiahfrom An Old Testament Commentary for English Readers by Various Authors

Only late in life did Pope undertake to write any traditional verse-by-verse Bible commentary, and this 1883 work on Ezra and Nehemiah is his only extended, running interaction with Old Testament text. Ellicott’s multi-author commentary has…

“The Education and Special Training of Ministers in Theological Schools”

This essay, which runs about 11 pages, was delivered to the Oecumenical Methodist Conference in London in 1881. Pope delivered it on Wednesday, September 14, during the session on education. The Proceedings of the meeting (published…

Methodist Doctrine

In this essay published in 1881, Pope sketched the ways in which Methodist doctrine stood in strong continuity with the great tradition of classic Christian theology, and also drew out the unique contribution Methodism had to…

Discourses: Chiefly on the Lordship of the Incarnate RedeemerDelivered in the Chapel of the Wesleyan Theological Institution, Didsbury. Third and Enlarged Edition.

23 chapters, 408 pages. Although it has a different title, this is actually the third edition, enlarged, of 1869’s Discourses on the Kingdom and Reign of Christ. The changes are noted below in red. The Prophecies…

Erich Haupt, The First Epistle of St. John: A Contribution to Biblical Theology.Translated with an
introduction by W. B. Pope.

Pope provides a very long “Translator’s Preface,” running to 20 pages and giving his own view of the unique characteristics of First John. It is one of Pope’s fullest statements of his view of the letter’s…

A Compendium of Christian Theology, 2nd Edition, Revised and EnlargedBeing Analytical Outlines of a Course of Theological Study, Biblical, Dogmatic, Historical

This 1879 London edition of the Compendium, 3 volumes (1361 pages plus index), is the first definitive version. (There was never a third edition, but I have noticed a few minor changes in subsequent printings through…

Sermons, Addresses, and ChargesDelivered During his Year of Office

The Prayers of St. PaulBeing an Analysis and Exposition of the Devotional Portion of the Apostle's Writings

“The substance of these Papers has appeared in the Methodist Magazine. The Writer, being requested to collect them into a volume, has taken the opportunity of expanding the original Essays and making them somewhat more complete…

Memoir of the late James Heald of Parrs Wood

Pope’s biography of James Heald (1796-1873), a devout lay Methodist banker and MP (representing Stockport in the House of Commons). 68pp Includes one of Heald’s sermons on 3 John 1:2 (“that you may prosper and be…

A Compendium of Christian Theology (1st ed.)Being Analytical Outlines of a Course of Theological Study, Biblical, Dogmatic, Historical

This is the single-volume, 752-page first edition of Pope’s Compendium. Pope greatly expanded it for the three-volume, 1361-page second edition with a general index. This first edition was so definitively superseded by the second edition that…

The Person of Christ: Dogmatic, Scriptural, Historical

The Fernley Lecture of 1871, With Two Additional Essays on the Biblical and Ecclesiastical Development of the Doctrine, and Illustrative Notes. Second Edition. London: Wesleyan Conference Office, 1875. 302pp, additions as noted in preface. Definitive statement…

A Memoir of John Fernley, Esq., J.P., Late of Clairville, Southportreprinted from the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, with Corrections and Additions

Pope’s memorial pamphlet for John Fernley (1796-1873), a philanthropic Methodist layman. Fernley was a cotton manufacturer who retired from business in his forties. Among his other projects, he envisioned and endowed the Fernley lectures (in which…

The Peculiarities of Methodist DoctrineAn Address delivered in the open Session of the Irish Wesleyan-Methodist Conference, June 19th , 1873

This talk, published as a 22-page booklet, came at a crucial juncture in Pope’s development: when he was publishing his translation and commentary on Winer’s Comparative View, and was pondering very broadly how Methodism fit within…

Translation of Georg Benedikt Winer’s Comparative View of the Doctrines and Confessions of the Various Communities of Christendom

(placeholder) See a description of this work here. Just the charts from Winer’s book here; cleaned-up version of them here.

Memoir of the Rev. John Hannah, D.D.in John Hannah, Introductory Lectures on the Study of Christian Theology: with Outlines of Lectures on the Doctrines of Christianity: to which is prefixed a memoir of the Rev. John Hannah, D.D., by W.B. Pope

Pope edited for posthumous publication the lectures of John Hannah (1792-1867), his own theology tutor and also his predecessor in the chair at Didsbury. Pope’s introductory memoir is 70 pages long, and reveals much about what…