Charles Wesley, A Prisoner of Hope

Although Charles Wesley is known primarily as a distinguished English-language hymn writer and joint leader with his brother John of the Methodist reform movement within the Church of England, this book examines how the struggles and difficulties he faced as a child and as an adult shaped the person he was ever becoming. It explores how he was shaped by the love and conflicts of his family, conversion, the struggles of the Wesleyan movement within itself and within the Church of England, of marriage, parenthood, outreach to the poor, Scripture, the Book of Common Prayer, and the vows taken at his ordination. How did these struggles and the gospel itself mold the language of his hymns, theology, preaching, and daily life? How he dealt with them as a brother, pastor, husband, father, and friend is vitally important for pastors today and very valuable for an understanding of his hymns and poems. Charles called himself a prisoner of hope whom "God is able to save to the uttermost, to break my bonds in sunder and bring deliverance to the captive." A study of his struggles and how he dealt with them no longer lets us refer to him merely as "the hymn writer."