In nearly a half-century of missionary work throughout England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, brothers John and Charles Wesley found the southwestern county of Cornwall to be among their most serious theological and social challenges. Eighteenth-century Cornwall lacked population centers, and small towns and villages were isolated by inadequate roads. The adult population consisted mainly of miners, fisherman and smugglers--men more interested in the bulk of their pocketbooks than in the status of their souls. And the clergy of the Church of England overwhelmingly opposed the Wesleys and their itinerant preachers, encouraging Anglicans to disrupt the Wesleys' outdoor services and to attack and burn Methodist preaching houses. Although the Wesleys made some evangelical progress in Cornwall, the question remained upon John Wesley's death in 1791: did the mission to Cornwall succeed or fail? This book considers the mission with a close reading of the Wesleys writings, and covers the overall history of 18th-century British Methodism and its contribution to the religious and social history of the British Empire.

John Wesley, eighteenth century Church of England priest and founder of Methodism, was strongly influenced by the works of Roman Catholic mystics early in his ministry. These writings shaped his widely known doctrine of Christian perfection or entire sanctification. The mystics inspired Wesley to advocate for a lofty spiritual goal that he believed to be attainable in this life. In time, however, he developed many contentions with extremes as well as some particulars found in the mystical tradition. Beginning in 1749, Wesley began to publish his Christian Library—a fifty-volume compilation of abridged works that he believed to be among the best writings on practical divinity that had been published in English. Among this vast collection, he incorporated two works originally written in Spanish including a sampling of Letters by Juan de Ávila and the Spiritual Guide by Miguel de Molinos. This book examines Wesley’s editing of these works as a way of evaluating Wesley’s theology in comparison and contrast with Spanish mysticism. In particular, this book serves as a comparative study among these authors on matters of theological authority, self-knowledge and epistemology, soteriology, spiritual growth, suffering and divine withdrawal, prayer, meditation, contemplation, and the spiritual goal.

This is the first full biography of Biblical scholar and theological seminary professor James Strong (1822-1894). It describes his upbringing, early and higher education, the schools and colleges where he taught, his academic colleagues, his contributions to the development of nineteenth-century American Methodism, and his numerous publications--particularly his Biblical Concordance (1894), which continues as a standard and essential reference work. It includes edited versions of selected sermons and letters never before published, as well as comments from his students, the details of his experience in the development of the early nineteenth-century American railroad system, and detailed obituaries and reactions to his death.

This book examines how the growth of tourism in locations that have historically been considered geographically remote plays a major role in the consolidation and transformation of often longstanding and powerful cultural imaginaries about ‘the edges of the world’. The contributors examine the attraction of the sublime, remoteness, continental border-points, and the dangers of the sea in Finisterre (or Fisterra) in Galicia (Spain); Finistère in Brittany (France); Land’s End, Cornwall (England); Lough Derg (Ireland); Nordkapp or North Cape (Norway); Cape Spear, Newfoundland (Canada); and Tierra del Fuego (Argentina). While those travelling to these locations can be seen to be conducting some form of religious or secular pilgrimage, those who live in them have long contended with the implications of economic and political marginalization within global political economies.

This volume, the third of three in this series alone, about St. Ives which 'Q' termed Ardevora relates the tale of Ia, named after the Patron Saint of St. Ives. With clear echoes of George Eliot and references to J.M. Barrie, medieval ballads and Biblical references, Ia relates the story of the love between two people of very different stations in life. Ia contains a tale, with lightly disguised historical references to real events in Cornwall but which is also very positive towards women who rise above their circumstances. Now surpassed in fame as a writer by his daughter's best friend, Daphne du Maurier, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch was the pre-eminent Cornish writer of Victorian & Edwardian times and founder of the Cambridge University school of English Literature. He is of particular interest since his fiction was very often based on factual events long passed from memory.