Routledge Companion to John Wesley

The Routledge Companion to John Wesley provides an overview of the work and ideas of one of the principal founders of Methodism, John Wesley (1703-91). Wesley remains highly influential, especially within the worldwide Methodist movement of some eighty million people. As a preacher and religious reformer his efforts led to the rise of a global Protestant movement, but the wide-ranging topics addressed in his writings also suggest a mind steeped in the intellectual developments of the North Atlantic, early modern world. His numerous publications cover not only theology but ethics, history, aesthetics, politics, human rights, health and wellbeing, cosmology and ecology. This volume places Wesley within his eighteenth-century context, analyzes his contribution to thought across his multiple interests, and assesses his continuing relevance today. It contains essays by an international team of scholars, drawn from within the Methodist tradition and beyond. This is a valuable reference particularly for scholars of Methodist Studies, theology, church history and religious history.

List of contents

1. Introduction
Joseph W. Cunningham and Clive Murray Norris and
PART I: Historical Context



2. Eighteenth-Century Britain: Politics, Society, Religion, and the Enlightenment

William Gibson



3. The Eighteenth-Century Atlantic World

David Ceri Jones



4. Wesley's Education and Early Spiritual Formation

Joseph Wood

PART II: Wesley's Major Works



5. Wesley's Publishing Strategy

Isabel Rivers



6. Journals

Michael Mascuch



7. Sermons

Françoise Deconinck-Brossard



8. A Christian Library

Jeffrey Galbraith



9. Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament

Sarah Heaner Lancaster



10. 1780 Collection of Hymns

Martin V. Clarke



11. Primitive Physic

Randy L. Maddox



12. Compendium of Natural Philosophy

Joseph W. Cunningham



13. 1784 Sunday Service

Karen B. Westerfield Tucker



14. The Three Tune Collections

S T Kimbrough, Jr

PART III: Wesley's Thinking

PART IIIA: Principles of Wesley's Thinking



15. Theology

Jason E. Vickers



16. Metaphysics

Derek A. Michaud



17. Epistemology

Barry E. Bryant



18. Applications to Psychology and Psychotherapy

Brad D. Strawn



19. Ethics

Sondra Wheeler



20. Social and Political Thought

Ryan Nicholas Danker

PART IIIB: Humankind in Society



21. Race, Enslavement and Othering

Julius Kithinji



22. Gender, Sexuality and Marriage

Maureen Knudsen Langdoc



23. Education and Children

Linda A. Ryan



24. Money and Business

Clive Murray Norris



25. War

Andrew Pickering



26. Poetry and Aesthetics

Jasper Cragwall



27. Food, Drink and Dress

Charles Wallace



28. Engagements with Non-British Cultures

David N. Field

PART IIIC: Humankind and the World



29. Providence and History

Dick Osita Eugenio



30. The Natural and Supernatural Worlds

James E. Pedlar



31. Science and Technology

Dion A. Forster



32. Animal Welfare

David L. Clough

PART IV: Wesley's Reception



33. Britain and Ireland, to c.1820

Simon Lewis



34. America, to c.1820

Natalya A. Cherry



35. Commemorating John Wesley: Forming the Creation Myth of Methodism

Peter S. Forsaith

PART V: Wesley's Longer-Term Geographic Legacy



36. The Atlantic World

Jérôme Grosclaude



37. Africa

R. Simangaliso Kumalo



38. Australasia, Asia and Oceania

Glen O'Brien



39. Latin America and the Caribbean

Philip Wingeier-Rayo



40. A Quantitative Assessment of the Global Expansion of Wesley's Methodism

David J. Jeremy

About the author

Clive Murray Norris is a historian of Methodism, and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History, Oxford Brookes University, UK. He is the author of The Financing of John Wesley’s Methodism c. 1740-1800 (Oxford University Press, 2017) and A History of Methodist Insurance in Britain (Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History, 2022). He was until 2023 co-editor of the journal Wesley and Methodist Studies.
Joseph W. Cunningham is Associate Professor of Religion at Eureka College in central Illinois, US. He is the author of John Wesley’s Pneumatology: Perceptible Inspiration (Routledge, 2014), and a co-editor of the journal Wesley and Methodist Studies.

Summary

The Routledge Companion to John Wesley provides an overview of the work and ideas of one of the principal founders of Methodism, John Wesley (1703-1791).

Product details

• Authors: Clive Murray Cunningham Norris
• Assisted by: Joseph W. Cunningham (Editor), Cunningham Joseph W. (Editor), Clive Murray Norris (Editor), Norris Clive Murray (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 15.09.2023
• EAN: 9780367471675
• ISBN: 978-0-367-47167-5
• No. of pages: 538
• Series: Routledge Religion Companions
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Religion/theology > Other religions; European History, PHILOSOPHY / Religious, HISTORY / Europe / General, RELIGION / Ethics, RELIGION / Christianity / History, RELIGION / Philosophy, RELIGION / Christianity / Methodist, History of Religion, Religious ethics, Philosophy of religion, Methodist Churches