Religion of the People

Methodism was the most important religious movement in the English-speaking world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It helped reshape the old denominational order in the British Isles and North America and deeply affected the lives of many millions of people. Although taking account of broader patterns of growth, the focus of this book is Methodism in the British Isles in the period 1750-1900. David Hempton begins with a discussion of why Methodism grew when and where it did and what was the nature of the Methodist experience for those who embraced it. The distinctive religious beliefs and practices of Methodism appealed mostly to women and men of the lower middle and working classes, and its harsh disciplines and tender pieties have been closely related to many other important questions such as class formation, increased political consciousness, the rise of industrial capitalism and market economies, and the growth of religious pluralism. Hempton considers four of the important figures in the early history of Methodism: John Wesley, the founder; Jabez Bunting, the most powerful man in the connexion in the nineteenth century; Thomas Allan, the connexional lawyer and political adviser; and Gideon Ouseley, a representative of the much neglected order of itinerant preachers who spread the Methodist message. The Religion of the People concludes with an exploration of the themes of law, politics and gender which lie at the heart of Methodist influencee on individuals, communities and social structures.