Wesley, John (1703–1791)
John Wesley (1703–91), the founder of Methodism. With his brother Charles, and George Whitefield, John Wesley formed the Methodist Church in reaction to the rationalism and social apathy of the Anglican Church. He is said to have preached 40,000 open-air sermons to the poor throughout Britain.
English founder of Methodism. When the pulpits of the Church of England were closed to him and his followers, he took the gospel to the people. For 50 years he travelled the country on horseback, preaching daily, largely in the open air. His sermons became the doctrinal standard of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.
| Wesley went to Oxford University together with his brother Charles, where their circle was nicknamed Methodists because of their strict adherence to a specified ‘method’ of devotional study. He was ordained in the Church of England in 1728 and in 1735 he went to the American colony of Georgia as a missionary. On his return he experienced ‘conversion’ in 1738, and from being rigidly High Church developed into an ardent Evangelical. |
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