Essay about John Wesley

[seekingpurity047]

Hello there!

I am a University Student here in Windsor, Ontario and I was wondering if you guys knew of any resources that I could possibly use (such as journal articles and the like) for my essay that I will be writing about John Wesley.

It has to be an argumentative, yet biographical, essay, so I need to be able to develop a thesis. I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions/ideas for me as I do not know all that much about Wesley, I just figured he'd be very interesting for the class (it's a class on Modern British history).

Thanks a lot!

Randy

[cristianna]

I know some in our section are very knowledgeable on Wesley and should be able to offer up some great resources for you.

I'd check out some online book stores doing a search on him, and see if the library has any of those books. Other than that, I'm afraid I'm not much help. www.biography.com (http://www.biography.com) (the Biography Channel) may list info and sources if you do a search.

[seekingpurity047]

Scratch that. I can't seem to really be able to find much of an argument concerning Wesley, but I do think I might perhaps write this about Whitefield instead!

[cristianna]

^_^ I can understand.

Let us know if you need anymore help. We may not have answers/ideas/suggestions, but it never hurts to ask. :thumbsup:

[GraceSeeker]

I guess I'm confused by what you mean when you say it has to be argumentative? Given the continuing disagreement between Wesley-Arminian theology versus Calvinism regarding the role of the free will and the unconditional versus conditional nature of the Christ's atoning sacrifice on the Cross, I can't imagine why you say that you can't find much of an argument concerning Wesley.

There is also the big, and unresolved, question as to when exactly Wesley became a Christian. Was it at Aldersgate? Or was it before? If before, then what does his Aldersgate experience mean? If it was at Aldersgate, then what role was the Holy Club in the formation of Methodism?

Lastly, some have suggested that without the Methodist revival, England would have gone through the same sort of violent revolution that France did, but that it was the teaching of the Wesleys and the organization of the Methodist into societies, and the sending of itinerate Methodist preachers that so transformed the society that it wasn't needed.

As far as Whitfield goes, he is an interesting character also, one of the rare Methodist who preferred Calvinist theology over Wesleyan theology as regards to the issue discussed in the first paragraph of this post.

For Whitfield sources I would probably just do a Google search. I imagine you can do that as well as I. Is there a particular type of source you are looking for?

[seekingpurity047]

I should have made it clearer. It has to be an argumentative biographical paper. The argument does not necessarily have to be about calvinism vs. arminianism or what not, but rather, it is a class on modern british history. So, I am more looking for what sort of impact Whitefield had on the world, etc etc. Something along those lines. i need to develop an argument of osme form.

[seekingpurity047]

I have found a lot of biographies and essays about Whitefield, so I think I will be fine. But in the future, I may have to come back here to ask another question, since the actual essay isn't due til next month. I don't have to worry about it all that much right now... I've other things to be concerned about, such as my paper on Canadian federalism that is due in two days :S

[Joykins]

Taking a course on CHARLES Wesley, sorry, can't help you. I keep hearing John did censor his hymn writing though. ^_^