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The Wesley Works Project, whose Works of John Wesley was formerly published by the Oxford University Press, will provide definitive editions of all of John Wesley’s works, including a decoded version of the coded Diaries . The last of four Oxford volumes-the Hymns-will appear this year. The rest (some thirty-odd) are nearly all ready for press. But until we have them in hand, we will have to depend on the old standbys like Curnock’s Journal , Telford’s Letters (Baker’s Letters goes to 1755), and the old fourteen volume Jackson edition of The Works (1829–31; rpt. 1978). The monumental new complete works, under the general editorship of Frank Baker, Emeritus of Duke University, will provide material for scholars for the next hundred years. The best work for selections from Wesley is Albert Outler’s paperback John Wesley.

Wesley biography perhaps necessarily lags behind textual scholarship. Lacking a truly definitive biography, we must look to Vivian H. H. Green’s John Wesley . John Pudney’s picture-filled John Wesley and His World is a good overview and introduction.

The 1984 Bicentennial has stimulated the production of many good new works and some reprints. Noteworthy are the outstanding bibliography of United Methodist Studies by Kenneth Rowe, and Women in New Worlds , the two-volume collection of essays about women in the Methodist movement, edited by Rosemary Keller, Hilah Thomas and (for volume 2) Louise L. Queen. Write to Abington, 201 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37202 for further information.

The best handy reference work on Methodism is Nolan B. Harmon’s Encyclopedia of World Methodism (2 Vols.), and the best collection of excerpts about American Methodism is Frederick A. Norwood’s Sourcebook of American Methodism.

See the journals Methodist History , Circuit Rider , and Quarterly Review

Copyright © 1983 by the author or Christianity Today International/Christian History magazine.
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