SOURCE: Heitzenrater, Richard P. “John Wesley and the Historian's Task.” In Mirror and Memory: Reflections on Early Methodism, pp. 205-18. Nashville, Tenn.: Kingswood Books, 1989.

In the following essay, originally presented as a lecture in 1988, Heitzenrater describes different aspects present within the study of Wesley's work and offers an overview on present-day scholarly thought.

Many people recognized John Wesley as a significant man in his own day,¹ even referring to him as “one of the most extraordinary characters this or any age ever produced.”² During the following two centuries, this evaluation was reinforced in part by the sheer volume of writing about the man. Since Wesley's death, nearly two thousand books have been written about him.³ His place of prominence in eighteenth-century European history has long since been assured. By this time, one would think that everything worth saying about Wesley had already been said. And yet, more books...