John Wesley

Not finished yet, but maybe I could get some first feedback.

1. Family Background

John Wesley was born in 1703 in Epworth, Scotland, and died in 1791. His family had a big influence on his later achievement in religion. His father, Samuel Wesley, was an Anglican rector of Epworth, Lincolnshire, and his mother, Susanna Annesley Wesley, was the daughter of a minister with a dissenting opinion about the church.(Calvin College, "John Wesley") His father held a Puritan opinion and thus, had to face a lot hostility triggered off by the Anglican Church.(Brown-Lawson, p. 135)

Following his family background, John Wesley was a preacher, theologist and he later became the founder of the Methodist Church in England. (Calvin College, "John Wesley")

He attended Christ Church, Oxford, in 1720, and in 1724 he received a scholarship. Being driven on by his father, he starts to "pursuit religious discipline"(ODNB, "John Wesley").

2. The Development of Methodism

Soon he got into conversies with the Calvinists. To his mind the Calvinistic system "exalts the transcedence of God [...], and reduces finite will to an illusion, making men even in his acceptance of Divine Grace, the passive creature instead of the consenting child of God"(source). Consequently, God's love and compassion are insufficient.(Brown-Lawson, p. 6)

There were a lot of religious societies in England, which, however, were dissolved and made extinct by 1740. Thus, an association of four gentlemen, Mr John Wesley, who worked at Lincoln College, Mr Charles Wesley, studying at the Christ Church, Mr Morgan, Commoner of the Christ Church and Mr Kirkham, coming from Merten College, founded the 'Holy Club' in 1729 to study the Greek testament.(Brown-Lawson, p.12) Attending these religious meetings, John Wesley sought salvation of his and the companions' own souls. He had group prayers and a weekly Holy Communion. Besides these activities, they visited sick people and prisoners as well. After all, the club was 'baptized' the 'Methodist'. (Brown-Lawson, p. 13) Through the activities in the club, Wesley got cocerned with the "inward [...] outward necessity and the possibility of 'Christian Perfection'". (ODNF, "John Wesley")

3. Missionary Work

3. Derivations

Concerning Methodism, John Wesley was not the only one to support this denomination. Beside him, there was George Whitefield and Howell Harris, who also supported Methodism. Following these two opinions, there emerged the Arminian branch by John Wesley and the Calvinistic branch by Harris and Whitefield. (source)

X. Bibliography

Brown-Lawson, Albert, 1994. John Wesley and The Anglican Evangelicals of the Eighteenth Century. Edinburgh, Cambridge, Durham: The Pentland Press. Calvin College Computer Science. X. "John Wesley", Christian Classics: Ethereal Library, ed. Calvin College. http://www.ccel.org/w/wesley/.