Religion of the People: Methodism and Popular Religion 1750-1900

Taking account of broader patterns of growth, the focus of this book is Methodism in the British Isles. Hempton discusses why Methodism, the most important religious movement in the English-speaking world in the 18th and 19th centuries, grew when and where it did and what was the nature of the Methodist experience for those who embraced it.
He also explores the themes of law, politics and gender which lie at the heart of Methodist influence on individuals, communities and social structures.

David Hempton is Professor of Modern History in the Queen’s University of Belfast. He is the author of Methodism and Politics in British Society 1750-1850 (London, 1984), co-author of Evangelical Protestantism in Ulster Society 1740-1890 and contributor of a number of articles on the religious history of Britain and Ireland in the modern period. He is a fellow of the Royal Historial Society.