Wesley and the Wesleyans
Wesley and the Wesleyans
Wesley and the Wesleyans challenges the cherished myth that at the moment when the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution were threatening the soul of eighteenth-century England, an evangelical revival - led by the Wesleys - saved it. It will interest anyone concerned with the history of Methodism and the Church of England, the Evangelical tradition, and eighteenth-century religious thought and experience. The book starts from the assumption that there was no large-scale religious revival during the eighteenth century. Instead, the role of what is called 'primary religion' - the normal human search for ways of drawing supernatural power into the private life of the individual - is analysed in terms of the emergence of the Wesleyan societies from the Church of England. The Wesleys' achievements are reassessed; there is fresh, unsentimental description of the role of women in the movement, and an unexpectedly sympathetic picture emerges of Hanoverian Anglicanism.
- A major revisionist contribution to the study of Christianity in Britain and the United States since 1700
- Rejects the importance attached to the so-called evangelical revival in the 18th century, and exposes some of the roots of modern American revivalist evangelicalism
- Takes a look at the nature of popular religion, the role of women in Wesleyan societies, and the much-maligned Hanoverian Church of England
Reviews & endorsements
"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
Product details
January 2005Adobe eBook Reader
9780511037665
0 pages
0kg
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- 1. The Protestant recovery
- 2. Early Wesleyanism, 1740–70
- 3. Later Wesleyanism, 1770–1800
- 4. Women in Wesleyanism
- 5. Anglican responses
- 6. Conclusions.
