Charles Wesley Poet and Theologian

S T Kimbrough, Jr., holds a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary and is currently a research fellow of the Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition at Duke Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina. He is author of the following books by Wipf and Stock: The Lyrical Theology of Charles Wesley, Radical Grace: Justice for the Poor and Marginalized, Partakers of the Life Divine: Participation in the Divine Nature in the Writings of Charles Wesley, and has published poetry in the journal Theology Today.

Charles Wesley is widely remembered as a significant hymn-writer, especially among Methodists, but he is not often regarded either as a major poet or as an important theologian. He quite often takes second place to his more famous elder brother, John, and frequently disappears in the face of John's role as leader of "the people called Methodists." This volume attempts to rectify these unfortunate misconceptions by demonstrating that Charles Wesley is a figure of primary literary significance in the history of English religious poetry. It also seeks to show that Charles Wesley was a theologian of considerable depth and creativity, and to place his work in the context of a variety of church traditions. The essays in this volume originated in papers presented to the Charles Wesley Publication Colloquium, held at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton, NJ, in the fall of 1989.