Abstract
John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, dedicated his life to his mission of revitalizing religion in the British Isles and beyond. He claimed not to be an innovator, but to be simply seeking to bring the Church back to the vigour and clarity of purpose of the early Christian era. He saw himself as a prophet, preaching against the contemporary obsession with money, consumption, and social status. However, his movement was born and developed in the vibrant market economy of eighteenth-century Britain. In fact, Wesley and his followers did not stand aside from that economy: they engaged actively with it, in many different ways. Wesley created social enterprises to meet the needs of the poor and sick; he established a highly profitable publishing company; he found a range of ways to encourage businessmen and businesswomen to become financial supporters of Methodism; and in some ways, his whole movement can be seen as a large and successful religious enterprise, competing in a religious marketplace. This chapter explores how Wesley and his associates sought to maintain the integrity of this prophetic vision, while yet working closely with the beneficiaries as well as the victims of the Industrial and Consumer Revolutions and the many social changes associated with them. It discusses, for example, both the spiritual and the economic aspects of core Methodist practices, such as running chapels and Sunday schools; some of the distinctive institutions of Methodism, including its collective model of leadership; and some of its core theological concepts. In doing so, it considers whether the Methodists went too far in accommodating the pressures of a society motivated by profit; and whether there are lessons for present-day Christians, who face the same challenges even more acutely.
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Notes
- 1.
For an interesting parallel from Norway, see the life and work of the early nineteenth-century evangelical preacher and businessman Hans Nielsen Hauge, as discussed, for example in Grytten, OH 2013, ‘The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism: Entrepreneurship of the Norwegian Puritan Leader Hans Nielsen Hauge’, Review of European Studies, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 31–44.
- 2.
Inflation calculation based on UK Retail Price Index 1791–2016, adjusted—https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/uscompare/ (accessed 3 September 2018).
- 3.
This is of course only a small part of a much wider debate on Christianity and the market economy. See for example Griffiths, B 1989, Morality and the marketplace, Hodder and Stoughton, London; Schall, JV 2015, On Christians and prosperity, Acton Institute, Grand Rapids, MI; and Barnes, KJ 2018, Redeeming capitalism, William B Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI. The business aspects of various religious movements and institutions are the subject of Porterfield, A, Grem, DE, and Corrigan J 2017, The business turn in American religious history, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.
- 4.
For a recent general discussion of the economics of religion, see Witham, L 2010, Marketplace of the Gods: how economics explain religion, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
- 5.
‘Richard Hooker’ was the pseudonym of the clergyman William Webster. Wesley noted in 1749 that contemporary estimates of his annual income ranged as high as £860,000 a year: Wesley, J. (1749). A Plain Account of the People called Methodists. Bristol, Printed by Felix Farley, 33.
- 6.
In 1767 the Leeds ‘Boggart House’ chapel was charging 1s.0d.–2s.6d. a year: see Boggart House Pew Rent Book (1767–1772), manuscript WYL490/1, West Yorkshire Archives Service, Leeds.
- 7.
Another example is Dan Taylor, described by Pollard as ‘the standout General Baptist of his generation’. He, however, learned his evangelistic craft from the Yorkshire Methodists. Pollard, RT 2016, ‘Dan Taylor: a Baptist entrepreneur’, Baptist Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 134–151, at 150.
- 8.
A total of 72,476 members were reported to the 1791 Conference. Field estimates that the wider Methodist constituency was around three times this: Field, CD 2012, ‘Counting Religion in England and Wales: The Long Eighteenth Century, c.1688–c.1840’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, vol. 63, no. 4 (October 2012), pp. 693–720, at 705.
- 9.
‘William Marriott (1753–1815) … became a London stockbroker … In 1788 he was appointed society steward and a class leader at Wesley’s Chapel. By this time he was wealthy and wrote to Alexander Mather (who had worked for his father before entering the ministry), asking advice on disposing of part of his property for charitable purposes. Mather later wrote to tell him how many people had been helped. For many years he gave away half his considerable income and for more than 20 years supported two schools for 100 poor children. He kept a modest journal in which he recorded business and private activities … He was an executor of John Wesley’s will.’ Source: online Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland, viewed 1 September 2018.
- 10.
Based on historic wage growth 1791–2016, adjusted: https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/uscompare/ (accessed March 2018).
- 11.
The spelling has been modernized.
- 12.
‘This raises a long-standing debate in the eighteenth century about the nature of prophecy. Some argued that prophecy was inspired from without and therefore was divine in origin [and therefore consistency and clarity could be expected]; whereas others saw prophecy as an “inward gift” which came from the prophet and was therefore fallible.’ Professor William Gibson, in a personal email communication with the author, 15 May 2018.
- 13.
There is a modern interpretation in Heslam P 2017, ‘Marketplace Monks and Nuns: Christian entrepreneurs as agents of reform’, Faith in Business Quarterly, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 35–36. A fascinating recent critique of Weber has traced the ‘Protestant work ethic’ to medieval Cistercian monks: Andersen, TB, Bentzen, J, Dalgaard, C-J, and Sharp, P 2016, ‘Pre-Reformation Roots of the Protestant Ethic’, Economic Journal, vol. 127, pp. 1756–1793.
- 14.
In the King James Version.
- 15.
In the King James Version. Wesley himself tended to follow this injunction literally, and rarely kept cash in his pocket for long.
- 16.
See also Riso 2015.
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Online Resources
Dictionary of Methodism in Britain and Ireland, Wesley Historical Society, viewed 1 September 2018, http://www.wesleyhistoricalsociety.org.uk/dmbi/.
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Norris, C.M. (2019). John Wesley: Prophet and Entrepreneur. In: Bouckaert, L., van den Heuvel, S. (eds) Servant Leadership, Social Entrepreneurship and the Will to Serve. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29936-1_18
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