John Wesley and Methodism

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Wesley (1703 - 1791) and the movement he was to lead and inspire. As a student, he was mocked for approaching religion too methodically and this jibe gave a name to the movement: Methodism. Wesley took his ideas out across Britain wherever there was an appetite for Christian revival, preaching in the open, especially the new industrial areas. Others spread Methodism too, such as George Whitefield, and the sheer energy of the movement led to splits within it, but it soon became a major force.

With

Stephen PlantDean and Runcie Fellow at Trinity Hall at the University of Cambridge

Eryn WhiteReader in Early Modern History at Aberystwyth University

And

William GibsonProfessor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford Brookes University and Director of the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History

Produced by Simon Tillotson and Julia Johnson

In Our Time: Religion

Discussion of religious movements and the theories and individuals behind them.

• No. of episodes: 130
• Latest episode: 2025-05-15
• History

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