4 - Wesley as revivalist/renewal leader

Summary

Distinguishing religious revivalism from the cultural revitalization that often seems to accompany it, the late American religious historian William McLoughlin defined the former as “the Protestant ritual (at first spontaneous, but since 1830 routinized) in which charismatic evangelists convey 'the Word' of God to large masses of people who, under this influence, experience what Protestants call conversion, salvation, regeneration, or spiritual rebirth.” McLoughlin was describing the revivals, awakenings, and reform that he saw recurring periodically in American history, but the description fits the English evangelical revival that John Wesley led, with two qualifications. First, Wesley lived long enough to contribute mightily himself to its routinization. Second, that routinization involved not only a quickly developing tradition of preaching, but also the support of nurturing small group structures that were adapted from preexisting models and evolved into a remarkably effective organization. The revival was a “Protestant ritual,” which Wesley helped cobble together from a number of sources, contributing to its eventual institutionalization as Methodism.