Restoring primitive Christianity: John Wesley and Georgia, 1735--1737

This thesis is a study of John Wesley and Georgia. While Wesley's biographers have all dealt with the Georgia sojourn, no one has yet produced a book-length investigation of his experience in the New World. The central argument of this study is that the Georgia mission, for Wesley, was a laboratory for implementing his views of primitive Christianity. The ideal of restoring the doctrine, discipline, and practice of the primitive church in the pristine Georgia wilderness was the prime motivating factor in Wesley's decision to embark for Georgia and in his clerical practice in the colony. Comprehending the centrality of primitive Christianity to Wesley's thinking and pastoral method is essential to understanding his experience in America.;The sources of Wesley's understanding of primitive Christianity were rooted in the revival of patristic studies in the Church of England in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Knowledge of the early church was conveyed to Wesley by his parents in the Epworth rectory and in the halls of academia at Oxford. However, his interest in the primitive church took a new and more intense direction following the beginning of his friendship with John Clayton and the Manchester Nonjurors in 1732. It was the pervasive influence of Clayton and his mentor Thomas Deacon that propelled Wesley to investigate the theology and social ethics of the early church. Wesley began a rigorous course of studying primarily the Apostolic Fathers including the Apostolic Constitutions and Canons, secondarily the Ante-Nicene Fathers, and thirdly select holy men of the fourth century such as Ephraem Syrus. This study was enabled by utilizing editions of the Fathers by the best Anglican scholars of his day and was supplemented by influential studies of the primitive church by Anthony Horneck, William Cave, and Claude Fleury amongst others.;The main body of the thesis critically analyses Wesley's application of his vision of primitive Christianity on the Simmonds and in his parish ministry in Georgia. It will emerge that Wesley's ecclesiology was that of the Usager Nonjurors which was in many aspects shared by other contemporary High Churchmen. In common with the Nonjuring/High Church movement, Wesley's ecclesial practice stressed the centrality of the sacraments in worship. In Georgia his endeavour to imitate the practices of the primitive church manifested itself variously through interest in precise sacramental observance, confession, penance, ascetical discipline, deaconesses, religious societies, and mission to the Indians. This theme dominated his interactions with the leaders of the Moravians and Salzburgers particularly on the subjects of episcopacy and communion. The final chapter of the thesis examines opposition to Wesley's ministry in Georgia. Colonists who did not embrace his views of primitive Christianity variously accused him of being an enthusiast, Roman Catholic, and divisive clergyman. Opposition also came in the form of male disgust with the manner of Wesley's ministry to women and the magistrates' reaction to his advocacy for poor colonists he believed were being oppressed. These sources of opposition combined with the Sophia Williamson controversy brought his Georgia sojourn to a swift conclusion. Through providing a critical evaluation of Wesley's conception and practice of primitive Christianity in Georgia, this thesis will contribute to the debates about the significance of a formative period of Wesley's life.