Religion in Eighteenth-Century England: Reason or Revelation

... Religion in Eighteenth-Century England: Reason or Revelation? In the eighteenth century England found itself in an age of evangelical revival. The revival arose both from the Church of England's failure to meet the religious needs of the lower classes and from a deep dissatisfaction with its dry rationalism. One of the most popular religious alternatives that arose during the eighteenth century was Methodism, created by a Church of England clergyman named John Wesley. Its popularity and expansion arose not only from the attractiveness of the Methodist Doctrine's services and fellowship but also from the French Revolution and England's expanding population and economy. The French Revolution created a climate both of excitement and anxiety while England's multiplying population and growing economy created those expanding classes and towns in which the uprooted and mobile felt loneliness and unease.1 This revival however did not topple the Church of England. The Anglican Church had its

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