David Jones & Boyd Schlenther 
The Elect Methodists 
Calvinistic Methodism in England and Wales, 1735-1811

The Elect Methodists is the first full-length academic study of Calvinistic Methodism, a movement that emerged in the eighteenth century as an alternative to the better known Wesleyan grouping. While the branch of Methodism led by John Wesley has received significant historical attention, Calvinistic Methodism, especially in England, has not. The book charts the sources of the eighteenth-century Methodist revival in the context of Protestant evangelicalism emerging in continental Europe and colonial North America, and then proceeds to follow the fortunes in both England and Wales of the Calvinistic branch, to the establishing of formal denominations in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Table of Content

1. ‘A sweet prospect’ for the gospel: the origins of Calvinistic Methodism, 1735 1738 2. ‘A great pouring out of the Spirit’: the forging of a movement, 1739 1740 3. An ‘outward settled agreement’: shaping a structure and a spirituality, 1741 1743 4. From high hopes to ‘miserable divisions’: the consolidation and splintering of Calvinistic Methodism, 1744 1750 5. ‘A leader is wanting’: lean years in Wales, 1750 1762, developing years in England, 1750 1765 6. ‘I will once more shake the heavens’: a new revival in Wales, 1762 1779 7. ‘You are only going to a few simple souls’: new English Calvinistic groupings, at mid-century 8. ‘My Lady’s society’: the birth and growth of the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion, 1770 1791 9. ‘The Lord’s gift to the north’: the spread of the movement throughout Wales, 1780 1793 10. ‘A smooth and satisfactory order’: towards a new denomination for Wales, and decline in England, 1791-1811