John Wesley

John Wesley, an Anglican priest, founded the Methodist movement and led the eighteenth-century Evangelical Revival that reshaped English-speaking Christianity. Educated at Oxford, he and his brother Charles formed the disciplined "Holy Club" whose methodical devotion gave the movement its name.

Aldersgate After a discouraging mission to Georgia, Wesley underwent a decisive experience on 24 May 1738 at a meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, where — hearing Luther's preface to Romans read — he felt his heart "strangely warmed" and trusted in Christ alone for salvation. It became the emblem of the assurance of faith he would preach for fifty years.

The itinerant Barred from many pulpits, Wesley took to field preaching, riding an estimated quarter-million miles and delivering some 40,000 sermons across Britain. He organised converts into societies, classes, and circuits, published his [Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament](/christianity/commentary), and championed the poor, prison reform, and — late in life — the abolition of the slave trade.

Grace for all Wesley taught an Arminian gospel — that Christ died for all and grace can be resisted — which set him against the Calvinist wing of the revival led by his friend George Whitefield. The two differed sharply on predestination yet kept their friendship; the disagreement is presented here as the positions the traditions hold, not adjudicated.

Legacy Though Wesley died an Anglican, the movement he built became the worldwide Methodist and Wesleyan-Holiness family of churches, carrying his emphases on personal holiness, assurance, and social compassion.