John Wesley's Awakening

John Wesley (1703-1791) was an English cleric, theologian and evangelist who was a leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form of the independent Methodist movement that continues to this day."e;The old-time, narrow, sectarian view of Wesley as the Founder of Methodism, and therefore the patron-saint and peculiar property of one denomination, dispraised and undervalued by all others, has largely given way to the world-view which ranks him with the major prophets, apostles, and saints of all time. His tablet is in Westminster Abbey, with the memorials of monarchs, statesmen, empire-builders, philanthropists, and men of letters. The scholars of two continents have begun to recognize him as belonging in the grand succession of Saint Paul, Saint Augustine, Martin Luther, and John Wesley-the great awakeners of the human soul-themselves awakened by the touch of God."e;This book owes its existence to a call for something which should present in brief compass and in non-theological language the personality and work of John Wesley, with special reference to the spiritual experience at Aldersgate, which marked the turning-point in his career."e;