John Wesley

17 June 1703—2 March 1791

Charles Wesley

18 December 1707—29 March 1788

Biography of John Wesley >
Biography of Charles Wesley >

Featured Hymns:

Arise, my soul, arise
Christ the Lord is risen today
Christ, whose glory fills the skies
Come, thou long expected Jesus
Commit thou all thy griefs (Give to the winds thy fears)
Jesu, thy blood and righteousness
Hail the day that sees Him rise
Hark! the herald angels sing
Love divine, all loves excelling
Sing we to our God above

see also:

O God, our help in ages past (Psalm 90)

Collections of Hymns:

List of hymn collections (1737–1791) >

Collected Works & Editions:

Henry Fish, A Poetical Version of Nearly the Whole of the Psalms of David (London: John Mason, 1854): Asbury

George Osborn, The Poetical Works of John & Charles Wesley, 13 vols. (1868–1872): HathiTrust

Note: See the assessment of this edition (and Rogal’s reprint) by Randy Maddox, here:
https://divinity.duke.edu/initiatives/cswt/john-wesley

Samuel J. Rogal, A New and Critical Edition of George Osborn’s The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley (NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2010–2013).

Frank Baker, Representative Verse of Charles Wesley (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962); preface revised and republished as Charles Wesley’s Verse (1964; 2nd ed., 1988).

A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists, ed. Franz Hildebrandt & Oliver Beckerlegge, vol. 7 in The Works of John Wesley, Frank Baker, Editor in Chief (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983): Amazon

Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, 3 vols., ed. S.T. Kimbrough Jr. & Oliver A. Beckerlegge (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1988–1992): Amazon

Randy L. Maddox, editor
Duke Divinity School, The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition

Charles Wesley’s Published Verse:
https://divinity.duke.edu/initiatives/cswt/charles-published-verse

John Wesley’s Poetry, Hymn, and Verse:
https://divinity.duke.edu/initiatives/cswt/john-wesley

Facsimile reprints by the Charles Wesley Society (with additional commentary and notes):
https://charleswesleysociety.org/resources/cws-publications/

Editions of Wesleyan tune books with commentary:

Tunes as They Are Sung at the Foundery (1742): CWS
Hymns on the Great Festivals (1746): CWS
Select Hymns with Tunes Annext (1761): CWS
Sacred Harmony (1780): Amazon

Manuscripts:

Gareth Lloyd, “Charles Wesley manuscripts: a guide to provenance and location,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 88, no. 2 (Autumn 2006), pp. 121–131: https://doi.org/10.7227/BJRL.88.2.8

Charles Wesley’s Manuscript Verse (Randy L. Maddox, ed.):
https://divinity.duke.edu/initiatives/cswt/charles-manuscript-verse

Wesley Biography:

John Wesley, A Short History of Methodism, 2nd ed. (London, 1765): PDF

Thomas Coke & Henry Moore, The Life of the Rev. John Wesley (London: 1792): PDF

John Whitehead, An Account of the Life of the Rev. Charles Wesley (London: 1793): PDF

Thomas Jackson, The Life of the Rev. Charles Wesley (London: John Mason, 1841)

Volume 1: Archive.org
Volume 2: Archive.org

Luke Tyerman, The Life and Times of John Wesley (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1870).

Volume 1: Archive.org (NY edition, 1872)
Volume 2: Archive.org
Volume 3: Archive.org

Edwin Hatfield, “Charles Wesley,” Poets of the Church (NY, 1884), pp. 647–658: Archive.org

Edwin Hatfield, “John Wesley,” Poets of the Church (NY, 1884), pp. 659–665: Archive.org

Kenneth J. Collins, A Real Christian: The Life of John Wesley (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000): WorldCat | Amazon

Stephen Tomkins, John Wesley: A Biography (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003): WorldCat | Amazon

Timothy J. Crutcher, John Wesley: His Life and Thought (Kansas City: Beacon Hill, 2005) WorldCat | Amazon

Gary Best, Charles Wesley: A Biography (2006): WorldCat | Amazon

Gareth Lloyd, Charles Wesley and the Struggle for Methodist Identity (Oxford: University Press, 2007): WorldCat | Amazon

Kenneth Newport & Ted Campbell, eds. Charles Wesley: Life, Literature & Legacy (Peterborough: Epworth, 2007): WorldCat | Amazon

John R. Tyson, Assist Me to Proclaim: The Life and Hymns of Charles Wesley (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008): WorldCat | Amazon

Randy L. Maddox & Jason E. Vickers, eds., The Cambridge Companion to John Wesley (Cambridge: University Press, 2010) WorldCat | Amazon

Wesley Hymnology:

John Julian & J.H. Overton, “The Wesley Family,” A Dictionary of Hymnology (London, 1892), pp. 1255–1266: Google Books

J. Ernest Rattenbury, The Evangelical Doctrines of Charles Wesley’s Hymns (London: Epworth, 1941).

Henry Bett, The Hymns of Methodism, 3rd ed. (London: Epworth, 1945).

J. Ernest Rattenbury, The Eucharistic Hymns of John and Charles Wesley (London: Epworth, 1948).

Alfred Burton Haas, Charles Wesley, Papers of the Hymn Society, no. 22 (NY: Hymn Society, 1957): HathiTrust

A.S. Gregory, “Moravian associations of Charles Wesley’s hymns,” HSGBI Bulletin (Spring 1958), pp. 135–139.

Nelson F. Adams, The Musical Sources for John Wesley’s Tunebooks: the Genealogy of 148 Tunes, dissertation (Union Theological Seminary, 1973).

Norman Goldhawk, “Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists,” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 9, no. 9 (Sept. 1980), pp. 170–175.

John Wilson, “Handel and the Hymn Tune: I—Handel’s Tunes for Charles Wesley’s Hymns,” The Hymn, vol. 36, no. 4 (October 1985), pp. 18–23: HathiTrust

Carlton R. Young, “John Wesley’s 1737 Charlestown Collection of Psalms and Hymns,” The Hymn, vol. 41, no. 4 (1990), pp. 19–27: HathiTrust

S.T. Kimbrough, Charles Wesley: Poet and Theologian (Nashville: Kingswood, 1992): Amazon

John R. Tyson, “Transfiguration of Scripture: Charles Wesley’s poetic hermeneutic,” The Asbury Theological Journal, vol. 47, no. 2 (1992), pp. 17–42: Asbury

Carlton R. Young, Music of the Heart: John and Charles Wesley on Music and Musicians (Carol Stream, IL: Hope Pub., 1995): Amazon

Teresa Berger, Theology in Hymns? A Study of the Relationship of Doxology and Theology According to A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists (1780), translated by Timothy E. Kimbrough (Nashville: Kingswood, 1995): Amazon

S.T. Kimbrough, A Heart to Praise My God: Wesley Hymns for Today (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996): Amazon

Steven Darsey, “John Wesley as hymn and tune editor,” The Hymn, vol. 47, no. 1 (Jan. 1996), pp. 17–24: HathiTrust

Daniel Stevick, The Altar’s Fire: Charles Wesley’s Hymns on the Lord’s Supper (Peterborough: Epworth, 2004): Amazon

Benjamin A. Kolodziej, “Isaac Watts, the Wesleys, and the Evolution of 18th-Century English Congregational Song,” Methodist History, vol. 42, no. 4 (July 2004), 236–248: PDF

Paul S. Wagner, “John Wesley’s use of German hymn tunes,” The Hymn, vol. 57, no. 1 (Winter 2006), pp. 27–38: HathiTrust

John R. Tyson, “The Methodist national anthem: ‘O for a thousand tongues to sing’ and the development of American Methodism,” Sing Them Over Again to Me: Hymns and Hymnbooks in America (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2006), pp. 20–42.

John R. Tyson, “Charles Wesley and the language of evangelical experience: The poetical hermeneutic revisited,” The Asbury Journal, vol. 61, no. 1 (2006), pp. 25–46: Asbury

Howard Snyder, “Charles Wesley’s hymn and prayer to the Trinity,” The Asbury Journal, vol. 61, no. 1 (2006), pp. 109–112: Asbury

John Lawson, A Thousand Tongues: The Wesley Hymns as a Guide to Scriptural Teaching (London: Paternoster, 2007): Amazon

Martin V. Clarke, “Spirituality and practicality: John Wesley’s visit to America and Moravian influences on Methodist music and worship,” Lumen, vol. 27 (2008), pp. 13–26: online

Erika K.R. Hirsch, “The Foundery collection: An examination of the first distinctively Methodist tunebook,” The Hymn, vol. 60, no. 4 (Autumn 2009), pp. 32–40: HathiTrust

Nicholas Temperley & Stephen Banfield, eds. Music and the Wesleys (Urbana : University of Illinois Press, 2010): Amazon

S.T. Kimbrough, The Lyrical Theology of Charles Wesley: A Reader (Cascade Books, 2013): Amazon

Paul W. Chilcote, A Faith That Sings: Biblical Themes in the Lyrical Theology of Charles Wesley (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2016): WorldCat | Amazon

Martin V. Clarke, “And can it be: Analysing the words, music, and contexts of an iconic Methodist hymn,” Yale Journal of Music & Religion, vol. 2, no. 1 (2016): online

Joshua Felton, Methodism 101: Theology through Charles Wesley’s Hymns, dissertation (University of the South, 2017): Online

Erika K.R. Stalcup, “The Wesleys: Charles and John,” Hymns and Hymnody, vol. 2 (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2019), pp. 210–225: Amazon

Chris Fenner & Brian Najapfour, eds. Amazing Love! How Can it Be: Studies on Hymns by Charles Wesley (Eugene, OR: Resource, 2020): Amazon

John R. Tyson, “Charles Wesley and the hymns of Methodism,” Word & World, vol. 44, no. 2 (Spring 2024), pp. 201–214: W&W

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John & Char Wes gallery