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In Our Time: John Wesley and Methodism

10/12/2020

John Wesley and Methodism

BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, John Wesley and Methodism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Wesley's role in the rise of Methodism in the 18th Century

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the difference John Wesley made during the Christian Revival of the 18th Century, developing Methodism into a major movement around the world

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Wesley (1703 - 1791) and the movement he was to lead and inspire.  As a student, he was mocked for approaching religion too methodically  and this jibe gave a name to the movement: Methodism.   Wesley took his ideas out across Britain wherever there was an appetite for Christian revival, preaching in the open, especially the new industrial areas.  Others spread Methodism too, such as George Whitefield, and the sheer energy of the movement led to splits within it, but it soon became a major force. 

With 

Stephen Plant
Dean and Runcie Fellow at Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge

Eryn White
Reader in Early Modern History at Aberystwyth University

And 

William Gibson
Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford Brookes University and Director of the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History

Produced by Simon Tillotson and Julia Johnson

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