Susanna Wesley The Complete Writings

by Wesley, Susanna; Wallace, Charles

• ISBN13: 9780195074376
• ISBN10: 0195074378
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-06-26
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Susanna Wesley, long celebrated in Methodist mythology as mother of the movement's founders, now takes place as a practical theologian in her own right. This collection of her letters, spiritual diary, and longer treatises (only one of which was published in her lifetime) shows her to be more than the nurturing mother of Wesleyan legend. It also reveals her to be a well-educated woman in conversation with contemporary theological, philosophical, and literary works. Her quotations and allusions include Locke, Pascal, and Herbert, as well as a number of now forgotten theologians. In some of her work, one can distinguish doctrinal and spiritual leanings, such as Arminianism and Christian perfection, that would later find wide expression in the spread of Methodism. Further, her writings demonstrate her readiness, for conscience's sake, to stand up to the men in her life--father, husband, and sons---and the three incarnations of English Protestantism they represented: respectively, Puritanism, the Established Church, and the new Methodist movement. Tracing these incidents in her letters and diaries, a reader can begin to understand how spirituality, even an otherwise conservative one in rather restrictive times, can serve to empower the voice of women.

Table of Contents

Important Dates in Susanna Wesley's Life	xiii	(2)
Abbreviations	xv
Introduction	3	(28)
PART I / LETTERS	31	(166)
Introduction to the Letters	31	(3)
1. Religious and Sexual Politics: Yarborough and Hickes Correspondence	34	(6)
2. "Dear Sammy": Samuel Wesley Jr. School Correspondence	40	(12)
3. More Letters to "Dear Sammy"	52	(12)
4. The Rectory Fire	64	(14)
5. The Evening Prayers Controversy	78	(6)
6. An Age of Reason--and Credulity	84	(8)
7. A Rich Brother in India	92	(10)
8. Advice to an Oxford Man	102	(15)
9. Distinction at Oxford, Scandal at Home	117	(13)
10. A Continuing Cure of Souls	130	(14)
11. Advisor to the Holy Club	144	(13)
12. More Advice, More Concern	157	(14)
13. A Window and a Supportive Critic of Revival	171	(13)
14. Last Letters	184	(13)
PART II / JOURNALS	197	(168)
Introduction to the Journals	197	(5)
15. "Think Much and Speak Little": First Surviving Entries	202	(13)
16. "Keep a Due Guard over Your Words"	215	(18)
17. "You Write What Is Familiar to You by Practice"	233	(19)
18. "I Cannot Altogether Acquiesce"	252	(18)
19. "But What Do You Think?"	270	(13)
20. "Bend the Whole force of the Mind in a Serious Use of the Ways and Means of Religion"	283	(19)
21. "The Most Blest and Happy Day"	302	(17)
22. "These Blessed Lucid Intervals"	319	(21)
23. "To Feel a Vital Joy Overspread and Cheer the Heart"	340	(25)
PART III / EDUCATIONAL, CATECHETIACAL, AND CONTROVERSIAL WRITINGS	365	(120)
Introduction to the Writings	365	(2)
24. On Educating My Family	367	(10)
25. The Apostles' Creed Explicated in a Letter to Her Daughter Susanna	377	(31)
26. Obedience to the Laws of God: A Brief (Unfinished) Exposition on the Ten Commandments	408	(17)
27. A Religious Conference between Mother and Emilia	425	(37)
28. Some Remarks on a Letter from Whitefield	462	(23)
Bibliography	485	(14)
Index	499
A section of maps and illustrations appears after p. 16.