Wesley, John, 1703–91, English evangelical preacher, founder of Methodism Methodism, the doctrines, polity, and worship of those Protestant Christian denominations that have developed from the movement started in England by the teaching of John Wesley .
..... Click the link for more information. , b. Epworth, Lincolnshire.

Early Life

Wesley was ordained a deacon in the Church of England in 1725, elected a fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1726, and ordained a priest in 1728. At Oxford he took the lead (1729) in a group of students that included his younger brother, Charles Wesley Wesley, Charles, 1707–88, English Methodist preacher and hymn writer. As a student at Oxford he devoted himself to systematic study and to the regular practice of religious duties; he and companions whom he persuaded to adopt the same orderly course were
..... Click the link for more information. , and George Whitefield Whitefield, George, 1714–70, English evangelistic preacher, leader of the Calvinistic Methodist Church . At Oxford, which he entered in 1732, he joined the Methodist group led by John Wesley and Charles Wesley .
..... Click the link for more information. . They were derisively called "methodists" for their methodical devotion to study and religious duties.

In 1735, the Wesleys accompanied James Oglethorpe to Georgia, John to serve there as a missionary and Charles to act as secretary to Oglethorpe. During John Wesley's two-year stay in the colony he was deeply influenced by Moravian missionaries; upon his return to England he made many Moravian friends. On May 24, 1738, at a meeting of a small religious society in Aldersgate St., London, Wesley experienced a religious conversion while listening to a reading of Martin Luther 4)), which was written by Melanchthon at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 with the sanction of Luther, who was not permitted to attend. About this time the control of the Lutheran Church had passed further into the hands of the Protestant princes.
..... Click the link for more information. 's preface to the Epistle to the Romans. This experience of salvation through faith in Christ alone was the burden of his message for the rest of his life.

Evangelist and Founder of Methodism

After his conversion, Wesley became involved in evangelistic work, in the course of which he is said to have preached 40,000 sermons and to have traveled 250,000 mi (400,000 km). On the advice of Whitefield, Wesley undertook open-air, or field, preaching, first in Bristol, then elsewhere. In 1739 a group in London requested him to aid them in forming a society and to act as their leader. An old foundry at Moorfields was purchased; it remained until 1778 the center of Methodist work in London. Because of his Arminianism (see under Arminius, Jacobus Arminianism, was not yet fully developed, but he asserted the compatibility of divine sovereignty with human freedom, denied John Calvin's doctrine of irresistible grace , and thus modified the strict conception of predestination.
..... Click the link for more information. ) and belief in Christian perfection, Wesley repudiated (c.1740) the Calvinist doctrine of election. This led to a break with Whitefield, although the personal friendship of the two Methodist leaders remained firm.

In 1784, Wesley executed the deed of declaration by which the Methodist societies became legally constituted; it was in essence the charter of the Wesleyan Methodists. In the same year he became convinced that he must ordain a superintendent to administer sacraments and to serve the Methodist societies in America, although he had long hesitated to assume the authority of ordination. Wesley ordained Dr. Thomas Coke Coke, Thomas (k
..... Click the link for more information. to this office; Francis Asbury was to serve as associate superintendent.

It was not Wesley's intention to found a separate church, but toward the end of his life the Methodist Episcopal Church had already come into existence in America, and it became apparent that in England the Methodists could not work within the Anglican Church. He therefore made plans for his societies to go on independently after his death, although both Wesleys remained clergymen of the Church of England to the end of their lives. During John Wesley's later years admiration for his abilities largely replaced the rejection he had endured in earlier days.

Bibliography

See John Wesley's letters (ed. by J. Telford, 8 vol., 1831); the standard edition of his journal (ed. by N. Curnock, 4 vol., 1909–16); biographies by D. Bonamy (1933, repr. 1974), V. H. Green (1964, repr. 1987), and D. Marshall (1965); studies by F. Baker (1970), W. J. Warner (1930, repr. 1967), and G. C. Cell (1983).

Wesley, John

(1703–1791) Anglican clergyman, evangelist, and cofounder of Methodism. The 15th child of a former Nonconformist minister, he graduated from Oxford University and became a priest in the Church of England in 1728. From 1729 he participated in a religious study group in Oxford organized by his brother Charles (1707–1788), its members being dubbed the “Methodists” for their emphasis on methodical study and devotion. Its numbers grew, and it began to undertake social and charitable activities. After a largely unsuccessful mission to the North American colony of Georgia (1735–37), they returned to London, where they came under the influence of the Moravian Church. In 1738, inspired by the theology of Martin Luther, both men had a religious experience that convinced them that salvation was possible through faith alone. Zealous evangelists, they had great success in preaching to the masses in the succeeding decades. In 1784 John began ordaining ministers himself when the bishop of London refused to do so (despite Charles's disapproval) and declared his independence from the Church of England. The two wrote several thousand hymns, including “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” and “Christ the Lord Is Ris'n Today.”