Video Librarian November/December 2013

Filmmaker Richard Attieh's informative documentary traces the life and work of John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement, who was born in 1703 in Epworth, England. Saved from a fire as a child—a pivotal event in his later spiritual development—Wesley went to London at the age of 10 to be educated, and on to Oxford in 1720, eventually becoming both a priest and an instructor, leading a group called the Holy Club, where he began to form his ideas about personal belief in God. Overseas, Wesley endured a disastrous stint as a preacher in Savannah, GA, and was influenced by deeply spiritual Moravians who had settled in America. Back in England, his longing for deeper faith led him again to a Moravian preacher and a conversion in which he came to feel the power of personal salvation. The film looks at the success of Wesley's "field preaching"—i.e, accessible services held outside of church halls that attracted miners and others to this new, populist religion of Methodism that would eventually have an enormous impact on worship, abolitionism, prison reform, and international politics, among other areas. Hosted by Wesley expert Keith Garner, this biographical portrait combines contemporary location footage with archival material and interview clips. Extras include an interactive timeline and a featurette with Garner delivering a selection of Wesley's sermons. Recommended.