Hanoverian Oxford and the Fashioning of John Wesley, c.1720–1745

Abstract

This article is an attempt at recovering the Oxford contexts of John Wesley’s young manhood, charting his milieu more exactly in the light of the most recent scholarship, and, in so doing, moving away from the outworn depiction of the virtuous and misunderstood young Wesley in a university setting largely deficient in its Christian practices. It argues that Oxford’s unsuccessful relationship and persistent ambivalence toward the mature John Wesley was due at least as much to him as it was to the university.