Henry Rack, to whom this series of essays is dedicated, is a towering giant among Methodist historians; his biography of John Wesley, Reasonable enthusiast, Footnote ¹ and his recent edition of the Minutes of Conference Footnote ² in the Bicentenary Series of Wesley's works are benchmarks in the field. It is indicative of his international renown that Perfecting perfection is an American production, with seven out of the twelve essays written by eminent academics from the US.

Any student researching early Methodism soon comes to realise that of all its characteristics, the most prominent was the pursuit of sanctification or perfection, the hoped-for culmination of a member's journey from a first awakening, and often with a sudden revelatory experience. Though few completed the whole path, the title of this volume aptly summarises early Methodist life.

Chronologically arranged, the first two essays describe much of the background to John Wesley's thinking. Although Wesley considered himself an Arminian, the first essay, by Stephen Gunter, reveals the multitude of changes to Arminius’ views at the hands of his followers, the Remonstrants, in the twenty years following his death and during their unsuccessful conflict with strictly Calvinist opponents, culminating in the Synod of Dort in 1618. David Lowes Watson then goes back even further to Robert Barnes and his understanding of justification by faith, the belief held and promulgated so strongly by Wesley. Living through turbulent times, exiled, a diplomat in the service of Henry viii, yet finally martyred, Barnes retained his beliefs, and Watson develops the theme of his influence on Wesley's and later theological and social thought.

Moving forward to the eighteenth century, Richard Heitzenrater takes holy conferencing as his topic and examines through the ‘Large’ Minutes four basic elements: conference, holiness, grace and the means, all of which are central to present-day Methodism. Grace merits the larger part of the essay, and Heitzenrater emphatically differentiates between divine attitude (what grace is) and divine action (what grace does), the former often being dominated by the latter in most present-day discussions. John Wesley's sermons are a further source for understanding his theological views and Patrick Streiff identifies continuity and change during an analysis of the complete corpus. Wesley was in many ways guided by John Fletcher, the ‘saint’ of Methodism, whose influence can be discerned in many of Wesley's later sermons, particularly when the recognition of a gradual transformation began to take equal measure with the previously required evidence of an instantaneous conversion.

John Wesley, of course, relied heavily on his preachers, ‘assistants’, in his mission. Through a reading of their spiritual autobiographies, Philip Meadows identifies their overarching concern to be co-workers of God in the salvation of souls, not least their own, as an on-going growth in holiness. Many commentaries in the past have viewed their role to be truncated with the conversion experiences of their congregations, but this only told part of their story. The following two essays consider different but somewhat related aspects of Wesley's thinking. Deborah Madden considers his interest in physical health and explores his views relating original sin to bodily corruption, mitigated through a compound of faith, medicine and a healthy regimen. It was part of the genius of Wesley to be able to relate to social strata other than his own, as is revealed by the number of copies of his Primitive physic Footnote ³ which occupied the shelves of the ordinary Methodist member. It might be guessed from such publications that Wesley was entirely the child of the Enlightenment, but, as Owen Davies shows, he was firmly convinced of the presence of witchcraft and the invisible world. Yet rational enquiry tempered his credulity, and he required very much more evidence than hearsay to believe the veracity of individual cases of diabolic possession. Davies brings his essay to a close in the nineteenth century, showing that although Methodism became colder in its view of the invisible world after Wesley's death, it did not go away completely and flourished to a degree in the advent of Spiritualism.

John Wigger brings the reader into the realm of transatlantic Methodism, comparing the lives of Wesley and Francis Asbury, and how the latter came to understand better than any other assistant sent from Britain how the movement was adapting to the different, republican views of post-colonial America. Because he was not as well-lettered, Asbury may be less renowned than Wesley, yet he was perhaps more instrumental in ensuring the success of Methodism in the US than anyone else. The life of an American preacher in the early nineteenth century is described by Ted Campbell, using the autobiography of William Stevenson, travelling round the frontier land of the south-west. Stevenson may have been living several decades after Wesley, but his personal journey to perfection had changed little from the earliest days of Methodism.

In his own contribution, Robert Webster compares the rise of the global Pentecostal movement to that of early Methodism in Britain, in many ways similar but with fundamental differences of emphasis, and both encountering substantial opposition in their formative years. Following on from his own work, Methodism and the miraculous,Footnote ⁴ he concludes with an analysis of Methodist and Pentecostal encounters with the invisible world, crucial to the development and sustainability of both movements.

The final two chapters revert to the nineteenth century and relationships between Methodism and the Church of England. Peter Nockles takes the Oxford Movement as his theme, and demonstrates that although Newman did not care for Wesley, there were many similarities, revival being the key component. Nevertheless, there were sharp differences and Martin Wellings describes how Methodists viewed ‘Puseyism’ and the growing Anglo-Catholic movement as a distortion of the faith, creating a situation which is still to be healed.

The final chapter is a bibliography of Henry Rack's principal published writings: nine books and booklets, forty-one papers, thirteen chapters in edited works, and more. Perfecting perfection is a fitting tribute to the author of such a considerable and influential output. Each chapter has set this reviewer on a path of discovery, reading and re-reading works of the respective authors, fleshing out further their admirable and easily read contributions. But not least among the re-opened books has been Reasonable enthusiast, sitting, as always, as the springboard for Methodist research.