Sean McGever is area director for Paradise Valley Arizona Young Life and serves as adjunct faculty at Grand Canyon University. His book on the conversion theologies of John Wesley and George Whitefield joins a list of recent comparative studies of these two leaders of the Evangelical Revival in the eighteenth century. The significance of Wesley and Whitefield is that both men represented theological traditions—Arminianism for Wesley and Calvinism for Whitefield—that continue to shape evangelicalism today. McGever presents a constructive evaluation of their theologies of evangelical conversion that offers important lessons and insights for the contemporary church.
In chapter 1, McGever lists nine synoptic statements by which he examines Wesley and Whitefield's theology of conversion. These can be briefly stated: (1) conversion is initiated and sustained by God's grace; (2–3) conversion is experiential and involves a turning from self and sin to Christ; (4–5) conversion is preceded by a deep awareness...
