Lyrical Theology of Charles Wesley - Expanded Edition

One of the difficulties in studying the theology of Wesleyan hymns and sacred poems is that it is couched in a literary and liturgical art form that does not fit into the usual intellectual paths defined over the last two centuries for the study of theology, which tends to be a prose endeavour. Charles Wesley composed a number of thematic collections of hymns, such as those based on the Christian year, e.g., Hymns for the Nativity of our Lord, Hymns for our Lord's Resurrection, Hymns for Ascension-Day, Hymns for Whitsunday, but his lyrics on a plethora of theological themes, such as sanctification, perfection, holiness, etc., are scattered throughout his over 9,000 hymns and poems from a writing and publishing career that spanned almost fifty years. One of the primary purposes of this volume is to bring together a collection of hymns and sacred poems representative of Charles Wesley's theological thinking. The texts are organized within a theological outline in order to make the study of his theological ideas and concepts more readily accessible, though many of them could be placed in diverse theological categories.This is a welcome addition to Wesleyan scholarship and a book that all those who sing Wesley's hymns will be interested in.