Reflections on the Completion of a Scholarly Edition of John Wesley’s Correspondence: A Roundtable Discussion

Abstract

These papers were presented at a session of the Wesleyan and Methodist Studies Program Unit of The American Academy of Religion in November 2025. The session focused on the recent completion of a seven-volume critical edition of John Wesley’s correspondence in The Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley. It began with Randy Maddox, General Editor of the Bicentennial Edition, providing a brief summary of the collection and highlighting a few of its distinctive aspects. This was followed by the reflections by four scholars (two historians and two theologians) on some ways in which this new edition provides a distinctive resource for Wesleyan Studies and beyond:  Cindy Aalders of Regent College, Vancouver BC; Natalya Cherry of Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University; Filipe Maia, of Boston University School of Theology, and Helmut Renders, Adjunct Professor at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo, Brazil.