Doctor of Philosophy / Department of History / Robert D. Linder / John Wesley (1703-1791) was an Anglican priest who became the leader of Wesleyan Methodism, a renewal movement within the Church of England that began in the late 1730s. Although Wesley was not isolated from his enlightened age, historians of the Enlightenment and theologians of John Wesley have only recently begun to consider Wesley in the historical context of the Enlightenment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the complex relationship between a man, John Wesley, and an intellectual movement, the Enlightenment. As a comparative history, this study will analyze the juxtaposition of two historiographies, Wesley studies and Enlightenment studies. Surprisingly, Wesley scholars did not study John Wesley as an important theologian until the mid-1960s. Moreover, because social historians in the 1970s began to explore the unique ways people experienced the Enlightenment in different local, regional and national contexts, the plausibility of an English Enlightenment emerged for the first time in the early 1980s. As a result, in the late 1980s, scholars began to integrate the study of John Wesley and the Enlightenment. In other words, historians and theologians began to consider Wesley as a serious thinker in the context of an English Enlightenment that was not hostile to Christianity. From a review of the historical literature, this dissertation details six links that scholars have introduced in their study of Wesley’s relation to the Enlightenment. However, the review also reveals two problems, one obstacle and one omission, that hinder new innovation and further study. Therefore, as a solution, this study introduces five lenses adapted from the recent scholarship of four historians and one historical theologian that provide new vantage points for considering the enlightenment of Wesley and Wesleyan Methodists, which together form the Wesleyan Enlightenment. Finally, based on the evidence gathered by using these new lenses, this study argues that because Wesley not only engaged the Enlightenment, but also addressed the spiritual needs and practical concerns of Wesleyan Methodists for more than fifty years in what he referred to as an enlightened age, John Wesley was a central figure in the eighteenth-century English Enlightenment.

Проблематика построения стабильного и процветающего государства является одним из основных направлений в общественно-политической и экономической мысли Англии конца XVII в. и первой трети XVIII в. Процесс становления национальных государств сопровождается внутренней рефлексией интеллектуалов, выраженной в построении общественно-политических теорий. Автор работы приходит к выводу, что взгляд Д. Дефо на место монарха в «политическом теле» не расходится с превалирующими среди вигов идеями о «равновесии сил в государственном устройстве» местом и ролью короля и парламента. Функция короля заключается в охране английской свободы и «древней английской конституции». Ограниченная, или парламентская монархия признается Даниэлем Дефо лучшей формой правления применительно к Англии. Основанная на системе противовесов власть венчается королем, который есть отражение идеалов общества. Не претендующий на тираническую власть, он является гарантом «общего блага». «Общее благо» понимается Д. Дефо как система процветания английской нации, где общество разделено на две неравные страты – низший класс и остальные (коммерсанты, интеллектуалы, благородные (титулованное и нетитулованное дворянство) и монарх). Выполнение функций, возложенных на каждую часть «политического тела», ведет нацию к всеобщему благоденствию. / The problem of building a stable and prosperous state is one of the main directions in the socio-political and economic thought of England at the end of the XVII century and the first third of the XVIII century. The process of formation of national states is accompanied by the internal reflection of intellectuals, expressed in the construction of socio-political theories. The author of the work comes to the conclusion that D. Defoe's view of the place of the monarch in the "political body" does not diverge from the ideas prevailing among the Whigs about the "balance of power in the state structure" of the place and role of the king and parliament. The function of the King is to protect English freedom and the "ancient English constitution". The limited or parliamentary monarchy is recognized by Daniel Defoe as the best form of government in relation to England. The power based on the system of counterweights is crowned by the king, who is a reflection of the ideals of society. Not claiming tyrannical power, he is the guarantor of the "common good". The "common good" is understood by D. Defoe as a system of prosperity of the English nation, where society is divided into two unequal strata – the lower class and the rest (merchants, intellectuals, noble (titled and untitled nobility) and the monarch). The fulfillment of the functions assigned to each part of the "political body" leads the nation to universal prosperity.