however, connexionalism was especially vulnerable to a popular cult of personality and rhetorical suasion. Does this show up in the movement’s early schisms, which could be construed in part as personality conflicts between strong leaders? The ecclesial authority of political rulers in church and state had been decisively rejected or subordinated to other spiritual ideals, but authority could not be rejected forever. This, then, was the central paradox of evangelical ecclesiology. It represented
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