The Duke Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition is committed to developing and providing access to a range of research resources for students and scholars of the Wesleyan tradition around the globe.
Research Resources
The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition is dedicated to providing a growing set of online resources to support study of John and Charles Wesley. The items currently available are listed below. If you have suggestions of other items you would like to see available, or resources you would like to offer for us to consider posting, please contact Randy Maddox at the Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition.
First-line index of John and Charles Wesley’s published verse
This excel file lists first lines for all verse that likely are original productions of John or Charles Wesley, as published in joint or individual works during their lifetime.
First-line index of other authors included in Wesley hymn collections
This excel file lists first lines of verse in hymn collections published by John or Charles Wesley during their lifetime that are originally by authors other than the Wesleys. It includes verse translated into English from other languages. It does not include John’s abridgement of Herbert, Milton, or Young; Moral and Sacred Poems, or the poetry included in the Arminian Magazine.
Title Abbreviations for First-Line Indexes
This list of the abbreviations used in column heads for the first-line indexes identifies both the full short title for each work and the location of the work in this online collection
Detailed Index for Short Hymns on . . . Scriptures (1762
S T Kimbrough, Jr. provides here an index of every hymn in Charles Wesley’s two-volume Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures. Organized by first lines, it lists such features as the length of the hymn and the scripture passage it exposits.
Metrical Index for Short Hymns on ... Scriptures (1762)
S T Kimbrough, Jr. provides here an index identifying the metre of every hymn included in Charles Wesley’s two-volume Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures.
Scripture Index for Short Hymns on ... Scriptures (1762)
S T Kimbrough, Jr. provides this convenient index of the title scripture passages for the hymns in Charles Wesley’s two-volume Short Hymns on Select Passages of the Holy Scriptures.
Register of Charles Wesley’s Preaching
Compiled and Annotated by Randy L. Maddox
This register of Charles Wesley’s preaching was developed as a parallel to the register for John Wesley.
A quick comparison will reveal dramatic difference in scale between the two registers. There are over ten times as many listings of specific sermon texts for John as there are for Charles. One reason for this disparity is that Charles significantly reduced his role as a traveling preacher after he married (unlike John). Moreover, while we know from scattered references that Charles continued to preach regularly in Bristol and London after he married in 1749, he left far fewer records of his texts than John (who kept sermon text logs, to help avoid preaching on the same text in yearly visits to various Methodist societies).
This register gathers references to specific occasions of Charles Wesley preaching, drawing from his manuscript journal, a number of journal letters that he sent his brother during his preaching tours in the early years of the revival, occasional letters that he sent to his wife and children when serving stints in London while John was touring elsewhere, and other scattered relevant sources. All instances where Wesley specifically mentions preaching are included, to give a sense of the frequency and pattern of his role as a preacher at various stages in his ministry. The biblical text for his sermon is listed whenever this is indicated. The site for each sermon is identified as closely as possible. Mention is also made of any surviving manuscript copies of the sermon (mainly in the earliest years). Finally, an occasional second-hand report has survived of specific sermons, which is recorded in footnotes.
The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition is dedicated to providing a growing set of online resources to support study of Methodism. The items currently available are listed below. If you have suggestions of other items you would like to see available, or resources you would like to offer for us to consider posting, please contact Randy Maddox at the Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition.
An anonymous diary, kept by a book steward and secretary of John Wesley living in Bristol, covering October 1752 to October 1754.
When citing materials on the Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition website, in all cases:
Mention on your first citation, or in an appropriate list of acknowledgments, that you accessed the material through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. (Web links will remain stable and may also be included.)
For Research Resources, such as bibliographies and poetry indexes:
If the item was previously published, cite original publication details.
For other items, give the title and the author/compiler as listed on website (if given).
For Transcripts of Published Wesley Texts:
Cite original publication details — reflected accurately in the transcript.
example: Hymns and Sacred Poems (London: Strahan, 1739), p. 12.
For Transcripts of Manuscript Wesley and Methodist Texts:
Use the original title or assigned short title, and pagination as shown on website.
Indicate the holding institution of the original document and location details.