Tyerman's first book looks at the Life and times of John Wesley's father Samuel. It is quite a big book, getting towards 500 pages and containing some 20 chapters. It is of interest in the light it sheds on its main figure, in the history of the times it gives and in the light it sheds on the background of John Wesley. The book does what it says on the cover, spending almost as much time on the times as on the life. That period (1662-1735) is very much an inbetween one and it is good to get some idea of the transition from Puritan times to the days of the Evangelical Revival. Tyerman is very sympathetic to his subject and defends him from several slurs on his character that have survived to this day. The pace is fairly leisurely and Tyerman freely quotes source material, although as he several times notes the narrative could be even longer.
Wesley grew up as a dissenter but forsook that denomination and entered the Anglican church, eventually becoming a high churchman. He was a scholarly man and a minor power who could have perhaps been more than a footnote in the history of English literature, if that had been his one ambition. He appears to have been a true believer and a faithful pastor there in Epworth, Lincolnshire, where he laboured for most of his life, often struggling to make ends meet. Tyerman's biography still appears to be the standard one, although a modern work has appeared called The Prevenient Piety of Samuel Wesley, Sr by Arthur Alan Torpy.
