Wesley, Whitefield and the 'Free Grace' Controversy

Joel Houston is Assistant Professor of Theology at Briercrest College and Seminary in Saskatchewan, Canada, and a junior fellow of the Manchester Wesley Research Centre in Manchester, UK.

• Foreword; Acknowledgements; Introduction; Part 1 – Historical Development of the Doctrine of Predestination;1 The 'Location' of the Free Grace Controversy: Historical and Theological Precedents; Excursus: Supra, Infra, and Sub-Lapsarianism; 2 Arminius and British Predestinarianism; Part 2 – Wesley, Whitefield, and the Function of Predestinarian Doctrine; 3 Wesley and Whitefield: Formative Influences; 4 "Beginning a Society of Their Own": The Bristol Division; 5 Analysis of the Sermon, ‘Free Grace’, and Whitefield’s Response. Doctrine and Polemic in Context; 6 An Awkward Armistice: The Cessation of the ‘Free Grace’ Controversy; Conclusion

"The controversy between Whitefield and Wesley over predestination in the early 1740s had a profound effect on the emergence and shape of both Methodism and Evangelicalism. Joel Houston’s detailed study at last explores the controversy over Calvinism in the depth it deserves. One of the virtues of this study is that it does justice to both the Whitefieldian and Wesleyan perspectives - something that has not always been the case in Methodist scholarship. The very different outlooks of Reformed and Arminian evangelicals continues to mark the evangelical movement even in the present and so this work is heartily recommended to all who wish to understand both the ‘Free Grace’ controversy itself, but also the DNA of English–speaking Evangelicalism." David Ceri Jones, Aberystwyth University, Wales"Houston offers a fresh exploration of the Free Grace controversy, without doubt one of the most formative events in the rise of the Methodist movement. While not less than a doctrinal disagreement between John Wesley and George Whitefield over the nature of predestination, Houston convincingly demonstrates that it was also much more than that, simultaneously performing an identity-giving role among Calvinistic and Wesleyan Methodists. This insightful work is an important contribution to our understanding of eighteenth-century transatlantic evangelicalism's social and theological origins." Ian Maddock, FRHistS, Sydney Missionary & Bible College, Australia"Dr Joel Houston provides John Wesley and George Whitefield scholars, as well as the broader audience of Methodist scholars, the most exhaustive treatment of the "Free Grace" controversy to-date. Houston argues that this debate was due to a clash between two formidable personalities (Whitefield vs. Wesley) who disagreed on an equally formidable theological battleground (predestination vs. conditional election). Houston determines that this controversy did not end because of theological considerations, but because of organizational considerations due to Whitefield’s resignation as the head of the Calvinistic Methodist societies in 1749. Houston’s systematic and lucid analysis of Wesley’s Free Grace sermon and Whitefield’s response within this volume is a major contribution to the debate all on its own." Sean McGever, Faculty, College of Theology, Grand Canyon University, USA