Synopses & Reviews
A critical contribution to the history of Britain and the U.S., this book demonstrates how the search for personal supernatural power lay at the heart of the so-called eighteenth-century English evangelical revival. John Kent rejects the view that the Wesleys rescued the British from moral and spiritual decay by reviving primitive Christianity. The study is of interest to everyone concerned with the history of Methodism and the Church of England, the Evangelical tradition, and eighteenth-century religious thought and experience.
Review
"...provocative and interesting..." Cithara"The book concludes with an interesting chapter on the role of women in Wesleyanism and another that describes the hostility of the church of England. Kent has provided readers with a stimulating and insightful account of 18th-century Wesleyanism. Recommended." Choice
Review
"...it certainly should be read by everyone who has an interest in the scholarly interpretive issues surrounding the Wesleyan movement." Albion"The analysis is Kent's book is very broad, encompassing, for instance, the writings of Thomas Hobbes as well as the novelists of Wesley's day. Above all, Wesley and the Wesleyans is fresh and suggestive, because it challenges all existing interpretations of the rise of Methodism...[this work is] always vibrantly opinionated." Books &Culture"...provocative and interesting..." Cithara"The book concludes with an interesting chapter on the role of women in Wesleyanism and another that describes the hostility of the church of England. Kent has provided readers with a stimulating and insightful account of 18th-century Wesleyanism. Recommended." Choice
Review
"What John Kent has achieved is to provide a different emphasis which allows us to see the religious movement Wesley created in a new light. This eminent historian of British religion has produced a slim, provocative book which will probably spur further debate as well as becoming a key text on reading lists everywhere. [T]his is an excellent little book which will create debate among scholars and spark interest in students." Susan Mumm, The Open University, Canadian Journal of History"...it certainly should be read by everyone who has an interest in the scholarly interpretive issues surrounding the Wesleyan movement." Albion"The analysis is Kent's book is very broad, encompassing, for instance, the writings of Thomas Hobbes as well as the novelists of Wesley's day. Above all, Wesley and the Wesleyans is fresh and suggestive, because it challenges all existing interpretations of the rise of Methodism...[this work is] always vibrantly opinionated." Books &Culture"...provocative and interesting..." Cithara"The book concludes with an interesting chapter on the role of women in Wesleyanism and another that describes the hostility of the church of England. Kent has provided readers with a stimulating and insightful account of 18th-century Wesleyanism. Recommended." Choice
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 222-225) and index.
Synopsis
A revisionary assessment of the Wesleyans and the Church of England in the eighteenth century.
About the Author
John Kent is Emeritus Professor of Theology, University of Bristol. His many publications include Holding the Fort: Studies in Victorian Revivalism (1978), The End of the Line?: The Development of Theology since 1700 (1982), The Unacceptable Face: The Modern Historian and the Church (1987) and William Temple: Church, State and Society in Britain, 1880-1950 (1993).
Table of Contents
1. The Protestant recovery; 2. Early Wesleyanism, 1740-1770; 3. Later Wesleyanism, 1770-1800; 4. Women in Wesleyanism; 5. Anglican responses; 6. Conclusions.