John Wesley: A Brand from the Burning (Paperback)

John Wesley's beginning in the Anglican rectory and his enthusiasm for the Christian faith at Oxford led to his becoming a missionary to the nascent colony of Georgia. There he found God in a new way and came back to preach a revivalist message across Britain. Out of this fiery movement the Methodist Church was established and it has been claimed that because of Wesley's work Britain experienced a spiritual revival rather than a bloody revolution. Roy Hattersley writes clear, straightforward prose and tells the story of Wesley with a spark of the same zeal and charisma that Wesley himself must have had. --Dwight Longenecker --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
First-class' Independent on Sunday / 'An intellectually and theologically compelling portrait' Scotland on Sunday / 'Splendid' The Times / 'An astonishing life' Literary Review.

On 9 February 1709 Epworth Rectory in Lincolnshire, home of the Rector Samuel Wesley, his wife Susanna and their growing brood of children, was burned to the ground. It was only when they counted the children that Samuel and Susanna discovered one was missing: six-year-old John. By then the flames were so fierce it was impossible for anyone to go back into the house. It isn't clear how, eventually, John managed to escape on his own but it was typical of his later strength and determination that he did. Young as he was, John Wesley firmly believed that his survival was a miracle - that he was 'a brand plucked from the burning' because God had work for him to do. He was not handsome, and his personal relationships - especially with women - were disastrous, but he had charisma, and his unwavering conviction that he had been called to do God's work drew to him increasingly big crowds, whom he gave something to live for. He was amazingly tough, often riding from early morning until late at night, stopping off to preach three or four times a day to followers who became known as Methodists. Wesley had no desire to found a separate church. At heart he was always a Church of England man, like his father, but in the end the differences between his views of the relationship between clergy and people and those of the established church became too great. By his death at the age of 85 Methodism had grown into a worldwide organization that changed the shape of society and had an incalculable effect on the development of the Industrial Revolution and Britain's imperial role. Roy Hattersley's research into Wesley's complicated story is meticulous; his view of a man who could be irritating as well as laudable is dispassionate, but often admiring. This is a serious but eminently readable biography which throws new light on the British social and religious scene. (Kirkus UK)

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• Books > Biography > Religious > Christianity
• Books > History > Religious History > Christianity
• Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Protestant > Methodist

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