Some secular and church historians have posed a theory that because of the Wesley's work among the poor and uneducated in the British Isles that England never endured the violent period of revolution that France and Russia did. Whether or not this is true can only be the theme of historical speculation. What we do know about John Wesley is that he directed one of the most comprehensive and innovative church reforms ever experienced in the Western Church.

The Outward Circumstance of John Wesley's Life

To briefly set John Wesley's life in its wider context, he was born to Samuel and Susanna Wesley on 17 June 1703 (or 28 June in the "new style" calendar after 1752). Wesley's birthplace was Epworth in Lincolnshire. When he was six years old, a neighbor rescued young Wesley from a burning room in his family's Epworth rectory. This narrow escape left a deep impression on Wesley. Because of his mother's influence in impressing his miraculous rescue upon him, John Wesley often in later life referred to himself as a "brand plucked from the burning" (see Amos 4:11).

Historians make much of Wesley's relationship with his mother who, as anachronistic as it might appear today, was an accomplished theologian in her own right. Susanna Wesley was the youngest child of nineteen sisters and five brothers. She learned Greek, Latin, French, and had a remarkable understanding of theology — all in an era that discouraged the education of women. In fact, Roy Hattersley writes, "Almost alone among rectory wives of the period, she [Susanna Wesley] was an intellectual (The Life of John Wesley: A Brand from the Burning, Doubleday, 2003, p. 10).

John was Susanna Wesley's fifteenth child and she lavished her education upon him as she did all her children. Of the nineteen children born to Samuel and Susanna Wesley, John appropriated this exposure to education most fully. This fact helps modern people recognize the amazing depth and breadth of Wesley's understanding of the Christian faith. His extensive repository of learning would later serve Wesley well as he became one of the preeminent evangelists of his century. His preaching bridged the theology between biblical times and his own.

Wesley's Education and Early Foray into Preaching

Wesley received his education at Oxford. He journeyed to Georgia and returned to England about the time that George Whitefield ventured to America. In America Whitefield enjoyed the evangelical success that had eluded Wesley. However, the two joined forces upon Whitefield's return to England. However, most of the established Anglican clergy considered the two young evangelists excessively infected with "enthusiasm." Thus, for this chief reason of "enthusiasm" among other factors, Anglican priests barred both from Anglican pulpits. Whitefield then took the initiative. He began to preach out of doors in what eventually became termed "open air" or "field preaching."