Susanna Wesley, who made such a profound impression on her son John, was a fascinating and many-sided character in her own right. She was a Puritan, an Anglican, a Methodist -- at once a mystic and a superbly practical mother and homebuilder. This study -- reissued now by popular demand -- offers a detailed exploration of her Puritan background, sees it as the key to her character, and uses it to illuminate the Methodism of which she has justly been termed 'the Mother'.

John Newton discerns in Susanna Wesley the central figure in the transmission of the Puritan tradition to the life of Methodism, as well as the figure who embodied, without contradiction, three kinds of churchmanship. The author describes Susanna's Puritan home and background, drawing freely on the writing of her father and fellow-ministers; examines the marital relationship of Susanna and Samuel Wesley; explores the way she brought up her children; assesses her own writings and theology; and discusses her reactions to, and influence upon, the Methodist revival as a whole. In a new conclusion