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This book examines how Methodism and popular review criticism intersected with and informed each other in the eighteenth century. Methodism emerged at a time when the idea of a 'public square' was taking shape, a process facilitated by the periodical press. Perhaps more so than any previous religious movement, Methodism, and the publications associated with it, received greater scrutiny largely because of periodical literature and the emergence of popular review criticism. The book considers in particular how works addressing Methodism were discussed and critiqued in the era's two leading literary periodicals - The Monthly Review and The Critical Review. Focusing on the period between 1749 and 1789, the study encompasses the formative years of popular review criticism and some of the more dramatic moments in the textual culture of early Methodism. The author illustrates some of the specific ways these review journals diverged in their critical approaches and sensibilities as well as their politics and religious opinions. The Monthly's and the Critical's responses to the Methodists' own publishing efforts as well as the anti-Methodist critique are shown to be both multifaceted and complex. The book critically reflects on the pretended neutrality, reasonableness, and objectivity of reviewers, who at times found themselves negotiating between the desire to regulate literary tastes and the impulse to undermine the Methodist revival. It will be relevant to scholars of religion, history and literary studies with an interest in Methodism, print culture, and the eighteenth century.
List of contents
Introduction
1 Popular Review Criticism, Methodism, and the Public Sphere
2 Reviewing Methodism in Devotional and Polemical Literature
3 Reviewing Whitefield and Wesley
4 Anti-Methodism and Belletristic Critique
5 Reviewing the Oxford Expulsion and the Minutes Controversy
6 The Legacy of the Monthly and the Critical Reviews
Epilogue
About the author
Brett McInelly is a Professor in the English Department at Brigham Young University, USA. His publications include Textual Warfare and the Making of Methodism (2014).
Summary
This book examines how Methodism and popular review criticism intersected with and informed each other in the eighteenth century. Methodism emerged at a time when the idea of a ‘public square’ was taking shape, a process facilitated by the periodical press.
Report
"To find myself reviewing a book about book reviews is ironic to say the least. Thankfully, this review - unlike many of those explored in this book - is an overwhelmingly positive one, devoid of the 'hostile attitudes' encountered by early Methodist authors [...]. By showing that anti-Methodist literature reached a much broader audience than previously thought, this book makes an invaluable contribution to the study of eighteenth-century Methodism. Crucially, by showing that reviewers often voiced their own opinions relating to matters of doctrine, McInelly has enhanced our understanding of the important - but largely neglected - role played by the laity in eighteenth-century theological controversies." - Simon Lewis in Proceedings of the Wesley Historical Society
