This volume is a significant contribution to essays which have appeared in a similar vein, namely, The Oxford Handbook of Methodist Studies (2009). The reader might wonder why Oxford and Cambridge would publish similar pieces almost back to back. It is not adequate to simply note that one is about Methodist Studies and the other about John Wesley. Whereas the Oxford publication contains 42 essays spread over 761 pages, this volume contains 17 essays in less than half the space – dedicated by editors Randy Maddox and Jason Vickers to Professor Richard Heitzenrater, who retired in 2009 from the William Kellon Quick Chair of Church History and Wesley Studies at Duke University. The quality of scholarship across the 17 essays is strong and amazingly even, and there is a thematic coherence which characterises this smaller Cambridge publication.

The privilege of reviewing both volumes allows me to note that the tone of the opening historical essays in the volumes is quite different. The polemical edge of the historical essay in the Oxford publication is missing from the opening essay to the Cambridge volume by Jeremy Gregory. His view on ‘The Long Eighteenth Century’ makes well the point that previous accusations regarding the general dereliction of duty by Anglican clergy will not stand the close scrutiny of good social history, but he makes this case by pointing to the balance of evidence on both sides of the case. Moreover, he points the reader towards a clarifying perspective on how Wesley and early Methodism itself ought to be interpreted in the light of this ameliorated perspective on eighteenth-century Anglican theology and practice (pp. 25 ff.). Professor Ken Collins’ essay on Wesley's life and ministry is equally full of information about his intellectual and spiritual journey as well as key points in Wesley's theology. For example, when Collins notes the early Roman Catholic assertion of Wesley's ‘conversion’ in 1725 (p. 44), he gives a theological rationale for dating the conversion to Wesley's ‘heart-warming’ experience on Aldersgate Street in London in 1738. While there is a difference of opinion about how important this experience actually was for Wesley himself, it is the case that dating one's conversion henceforth becomes a hallmark of early Wesleyan Methodism.

David Hempton's essay on ‘Wesley in Context’ is a superb piece of social history which draws attention to five different lenses through which Wesley and early Methodism has been viewed and interpreted. Hempton does not draw sharp lines about what one ought to conclude, but he does lucidly present an outline of the five frames, indicating what he feels can appropriately be inferred from these main points: the relationship between Wesley's Methodism and the established Anglican Church, the relationship of Wesley's Methodism to eighteenth-century popular culture, Wesley's economic views and how they shaped Methodist behaviour, Wesley's political views and how they shaped Methodism and, finally, the coherence or lack thereof of the Halèvy thesis that Methodism helped save Britain from a revolution similar to the one in France.

In part 3 (Wesley's Work), the title of his essay, ‘Wesley's Theological Emphases’, belies the sophisticated approach which Vickers employs to describe what others have called Wesley's ‘evangelical Arminianism’ – an Arminianism which holds with equal firmness to an Augustinian notion of sin, the Arminian emphasis on a ‘graciously freed will’, an Anglican notion of theosis (for Wesley, holiness and Christian perfection) and the historic orthodox teaching of trinitarian Christianity. This nicely frames the emphases which follow in essays by Rebecca Miles on ‘Happiness, Holiness and the Moral Life’, and the section-concluding essay by Karen Westerfield Tucker on Wesley's recovery of liturgical practices and the means of grace.

The question still remains regarding Wesley's lasting legacy, and Sarah Lancaster has struck an appropriate Wesleyan note in her concluding sentence of the volume: ‘So, as long as Methodism considers theology not simply as an intellectual exercise, but as a means to vital piety, Wesley's descendants will be honoring their founder as the theologian he wanted to be’ (p. 315). The reader comes away with more than an overview of Wesley, indeed, the book is as much about Wesley's Methodism as it is about Wesley himself. Nicely done, and strongly recommended.