Includes bibliographical references (pages 395-396) and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
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16. The family perspective : Son to Susanna ; Son to Samuel ; Brother John -- 17. The Methodist fellow : Attack on the sons of sorrow ; The Oxford Methodists defended -- 18. The unassuming spiritual tutor: John Gambold's description -- 19. Wesley in Georgia : The Christian exemplar ; The partisan priest ; The bail-jumping deserter ; The improper pastor -- 20. Before and after Aldersgate : A brother's faith ; A wild enthusiast ; An open enemy of Christ -- 21. The rabble-rouser reconsidered : A soldier of Christ ; The author of confusion ; That good man -- 22. Wesley as preacher : A rigid zealot ; The personification of piety -- 23. Radical Protestant or pernicious papist? : A Moravian sympathizer -- 24. The fanatic saint displayed: profane polemical poetry -- 25. The old fox unmasked : The plagiarist politician ; The Arminian fox ; The patriotic politician vindicated -- 26. The pretending physician: William Hawes's critique -- 27. The pitiable despot: forged letter on Methodist divisions -- 28. The dying patriarch : The reverend father in God ; A most extraordinary character ; The venerable John Wesley -- 29. That venerable man of God: the Wesley of the eulogies -- 30. Images of power: the controversial early biographies -- 31. Testing the memory: early nineteenth-century biographies -- 32. Polishing the image: toward a "standard" view of Wesley -- 33. Refining the sources: toward the "standard" works of Wesley -- 34. Wesley and the specialists: broadening the traditional image -- 35. Seeing Wesley whole: toward a new synthesis.
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Introduction: The elusive Mr. Wesley : The quest of the "real" John Wesley ; Considerations in the quest for historical accuracy ; Twice-told tales: two centuries of Wesley studies -- 1. A son of Epworth : A brand plucked out of the burning ; A child of destiny ; A collector of ghostlore -- 2. The Oxford don : The careful diarist ; "Primitive Christianity" ; The compulsive pietist -- 3. The Oxford Methodist : Apologist for the Oxford Methodists ; The settled and unsettled tutor -- 4. The colonial missionary : The hard-pressed pastor ; The rejected suitor ; The wrongfully accused defendant ; The ostracized reporter -- 5. Theological and spiritual pilgrim : One tossed about ; The assured conqueror ; The humbled doubter -- 6. The extra-parochial preacher : The field preacher ; The itinerant preacher -- 7. Apologist and propagandist : Purposeful journalist ; Public defendant -- 8. The persecuted preacher : Providentially protected person ; Unjustly treated citizen -- 9. The medical practitioner : Dispenser of medicine ; Prescriber of remedies -- 10. Practical theologian : The proclaimer of plain truth ; The aspiring perfect Christian ; The prison evangelist -- 11. Practicing poet : Collector of poetry ; Writer of poetry ; Translator of poetry ; Editor of poetry -- 12. The would-be husband : The jilted fiance ; The new husband ; The rejected husband -- 13. The anxious earthen vessel : The modest epitaph writer ; An honest heathen -- 14. The Catholic and anti-Catholic spirit : The Irenic theologian ; Protestant patriot -- 15. The careful planner : The center of union ; The perpetual image ; The philanthropic testator.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
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A new Wesley biography published at the tricentennial of his birth. The aim of this book is simple: it is an attempt to get to know the real John Wesley. The author explains why getting to know the real Wesley seems so difficult and describes the principles of such a quest. The first part contains material written by Wesley himself. The second part contains material written by Wesley's contemporaries, who describe, defend, and/or attack him on a number of points. The third part describes Wesley's fate at the hands of biographers and other writers since his day, starting with the eulogists and tracing the main currents of Wesley studies into the twenty-first century. This book describes Wesley as he saw himself and as he was seen by both admirers and detractors. It gives a history of the biographies written about Wesley and provides a distillation of the primary documents written by and about Wesley. It includes an index and a bibliography.