John Wesley once famously remarked that "when the Methodists leave the Church [of England], God will leave them." However, if numerical growth could be taken as a measure of God's favour on the movement Wesley founded, history proved the opposite to be true: In the decade following Wesley's death Methodism membership grew exponentially, resulting in a religious movement that would come to change not only the spiritual, but the also the political landscape, on both sides of the Atlantic. Drawing on neglected archival resources, unpublished manuscripts, and recent scholarship this creative and engaging critical study of Wesley's Irish preacher and assistant Henry Moore (1751-1844) explores the ascendancy of British Wesleyan Methodism in the decades following Wesley's death and redresses significant gaps in denominational histories of the period. It argues that the influence of Wesley's "son in the gospel" was not simply forgotten, but intentionally suppressed by later Methodists under the leadership of Jabez Bunting. Using Moore's life trajectory as a window through which to view the evolution of Methodist structures and self-identity, this study identifies the key factors that made Methodism such an attractive religious alternative for English-speaking people in the years leading up to the Victorian period. The resulting thesis will be of interest not only to historians seeking to understand the process by which a relatively small sect evolved into a major international force in less than a century, but also to church leaders and theologians who seek to understand better the ecclesiological roots of the Methodist movement. The contribution to learning made by this thesis is hence twofold: First it analyzes previous largely neglected Sources relating to Moore. Second, it draws conclusions from those sources shedding new light upon Methodist history, particularly in its Irish context.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:631710 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Clements, Robert D. |
| Publisher | University of Liverpool |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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