Kelly Diehl Yates, BA, MA, Ph.D. (NTC), FRHistS

'Testing the Limits of a "Catholic Spirit": John Wesley, Methodism, and Catholicism' (NTC), 2018. Published by Pickwick as The Limits of a Catholic Spirit: John Wesley, Methodism, and Catholicism, 2021.

Kelly’s thesis examines the extent to which John Wesley, an 18th-century evangelical Protestant in a society in which anti-Catholicism was prevalent, was able to put into practice his self-professed ideals of a Catholic Spirit and religious tolerance. Her broader research focuses on John and Charles Wesley, the early Methodist movement, 18th-century British anti-Catholicism, and ecumenism. Kelly has served in pastoral roles in congregations in Oklahoma and Arkansas and currently serves on the pastoral staff at Oklahoma City First Church. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, teaches for Indiana Wesleyan University, and is the founder and director of Plains of Peace, a retreat center for pastors in Oklahoma City.

Kelly was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the MWRC in 2019. Her reflection on this can be found here.

Select Publications

Books

Doctrinal and Controversial Treatises III, vol. 14 of The Works of John Wesley, edited with Sarah Lancaster and Randy L. Maddox (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2022).

The Limits of a Catholic Spirit: John Wesley, Methodism, and Catholicism (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2021)

Rush to the Heartland (a novel) (Eugene, OR: Resource Publications, 2021)

Book Reviews

Review of Donna L. Fowler Marchant, Mothers in Israel: Methodist Beginnings through the Eyes of Women (Wesley’s Foundery, 2020), in Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society 63/3 (Autumn 2021), 121-122.

Articles and Chapters

‘” Twin souls”: A Partnership of Equals in the Marriage of John (1729-1785) and Mary Bosanquet (1739-1815) Fletcher’, forthcoming Wesley and Methodist Studies, January 2027.

‘Holy Clubs’, Christian History 132 (November 2019), 30-32.

8 entries in Reflecting God: Devotions for Holy Living 79:4 (Summer 2019), 89-95.

‘“Perhaps he cannot know”: John Wesley's Use of Doubt as a Principle of his “Catholic Spirit”’, in Christianity and Doubt: The Church and Doubt, Studies in Church History 52, eds Frances Andrews, Charlotte Methuen, and Andrew Spicer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016), 331-346. 

 'How do we View People of Other Religions?', in Essential Beliefs: A Wesleyan Primer, eds Diane LeClerc and Mark A. Maddix (Kansas City: Beacon Hill, 2016), 143-148.

 'Jeffrey the Jacobite Poltergeist: The Politics of the Ghost that Haunted the Epworth Rectory in 1716-17', in Wesleyan Theological Journal 50/2  (Fall 2015), 68-79.

'The Wesleyan Trilateral: Prevenient Grace, Catholic Spirit, and Religious Tolerance', in Wesleyan Theological Journal 48/1 (Spring 2013), 54-61.

 'Confederates Hugging Yankees and other Impossibilities our Church Promotes', in Grace and Peace Magazine (Summer/Fall 2011).

'Don’t let it Get You Down: Jesus’ Rejection at Nazareth' and 'We Just Don’t Get It: James and John Request Special Treatment: Mark 10:35-45', in Preacher’s Magazine (Pentecost 2009).

Email: kelly-yates@outlook.com