Archive Article: John Wesley And The British Enlightenment 20 June 03.
December 23, 2008
Britain was the centre of Western civilization at the end of the 18th Century. It was starting point of the Industrial Revolution, the emerging economic system called capitalism and the beginning of what is now called liberal democracy.
Roy Porter’s “The Creation of the Modern World: The Untold Story of the British Enlightenment” traces the developments in Britain in that magnificent 18th Century. Britain began the century as a poor country on the edge of the European continent and it ended it as the emerging economic super power.
One person who lived through most of that momentous century was John Wesley, who was born 300 years ago this month. Wesley Mission is part of the international network of churches and organizations marking this anniversary.
Wesley naturally receives quite a few mentions in Porter’s book. Even in his own lifetime he was recognized as one of the country’s most important people. Histories of 18th Century Britain usually contain some references to Wesley.
The book also provides information on the religious and social context in which Wesley had to operate. It is very easy to assume that somehow Wesley had an easier task to bring about a religious revival in his day than we do today. But Wesley had to operate in a pretty tough environment as well.
The religious environment was not at all sympathetic to Wesley’s message. He was criticised by the Anglican church, which disapproved of his ideas for reform. But other people were sceptical of the Christian message in general. With the progress being made in science and technology, so some people claimed that religion of all sorts was “old fashioned” and no longer needed in the lives of modern people.
The New Age fashion of Wesley’s day was Deism: the belief that there was a God who created the universe but that God had no role to play in the lives of ordinary people. Some of its supporters were drawn from the ranks of former Christians who had were appalled at the decay of the Anglican church and stories of its corruption.
Britain was also agog with a new consumer culture. One writer commented at the time that London was a “kind of Emporium for the whole Earth”. Everyone was busy making money – which was the new measure of humankind’s progress.
With time growing precious to a commercial people, the English became noted as a nation on the move. A French traveller said they “walk very fast, their thoughts being entirely engrossed by business, they are very punctual to their appointments”. Fast food was invented at this time: a pastry cook shop’s windows opened up to the street so that passers by could buy in a hurry. Finally, there is the similarity in communications. The present era is one of a variety of new communication outlets (such as the Internet). In Wesley’s day, the great innovation was “print culture”: the easy availability of books and the spreading ability of people to read.
As people complain about how much time is wasted on the Internet, so a traveller in the 1790s noted: “The poorer sort of farmers, and even the poor country people in general, shorten the winter nights by hearing their sons and daughters read tales, romances etc, and on entering their houses, you may see “Tom Jones”, “Roderick Random” and other entertaining books, stuck up on their bacon-racks”.
Wesley was also involved in trying to make classic books available to the public by writing his own abridgements. He was trying to take advantage of this new appetite for reading by providing something worthwhile and morally uplifting to read. Some things never change
Broadcast Friday 20th June 2003 on Radio 2GB’s “Brian Wilshire Programme” at 9pm