Wesley and the Wesleyans: Religion in Eighteenth-Century Britain (British Lives)

John Kent is best known for his study of nineteenth-century British revivalism, HOLDING THE FORT. In this elegant, concise study, he takes on the historiography of the late eighteenth century's so-called evangelical awakening. Kent's argument, put simply, is, first, that if the Methodists hadn't seized the day, some other group would; and second, that most of the awakening's effects have been greatly exaggerated. For Kent, Methodism represents an attempt to generate an immediate and emotional spiritual experience, the desire for which lies at the heart of all religions. Methodism's success lay in its ability to produce exactly the kind of experience desired, and not in its theological details. Indeed, Kent is sympathetic to those Anglicans who critiqued Methodism, suggesting that far from being conservative bigots, they often had a point. Kent's attitude to Wesley himself is respectful but hardly hagiographical. Other historians of English religion and politics don't always fare so well; most notably, Kent delivers several brisk slaps to Jonathan Clark, as well as to an unnamed Eamon Duffy, with the strangely cheerful acidity so unique to English academic prose.

The argument's brevity will no doubt raise more questions than it purports to answer. The proofreading could, perhaps, have used a bit more work; I suspect that the historian G. J. Barker-Benfield will be somewhat startled to discover his transformation from male to female. Overall, however, this is an engagingly pugnacious historical outing, of interest to all specialists in the history of evangelicalism, Methodism, and the Church of England.