“…too indelicate to mention…”: Transgressive Male Sexualities in Early Methodism

Abstract

The first known use of the term “Methodist” to refer to the religious group associated with the Wesleys may have been linked to their taking the part of a prisoner accused of sodomy in Oxford in the 1730s. In discussion and debates on sexuality today, churches seem to pay little attention to relevant historical background. This article attempts to offer some evidence for same-sex occurrence around the genesis of what has evolved to be the Methodist community of churches.