This new collection of essays is written with the conviction that John Wesley and George Whitefield are too often considered in isolation from each other, and deserve comparative studies of their parallel ministries. Some have already pioneered this path, focused on particular doctrines, notably Timothy L. Smith's Whitefield and Wesley on the New Birth (1986), James Schwenk's Catholic Spirit (2008) on their ecclesiology, and Ian Maddock's Men of One Book (2012) on their preaching. Here Maddock gathers a largely Antipodean team—eight of the twelve contributors are Australians—to consider further points of connection or contrast.
The authors are drawn from a range of disciplines, as pastors, theologians, and historians, and the volume is designed mainly for a popular evangelical readership as ‘a catalyst for irenic conversation’ between those who divide into Reformed and Arminian camps as Whitefield and Wesley's followers have always done (8). For example, in a magisterial chapter full...
