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'Appear as crucified for me' : sight, suffering, and spiritual transformation in the hymns of Charles Wesley

journal contribution
posted on 2006-10-01, 00:00 authored by Joanna CruickshankJoanna Cruickshank
Early Methodist laypeople often described their conversion experiences in terms of seeing the suffering of Christ. This article considers this theme within early Methodist culture by examining the relationship between sight, suffering, and spiritual transformation in the hymns of Charles Wesley. Many of Wesley's hymns depict the suffering of Christ in evocative detail, encouraging the singer or reader to imagine and respond to this suffering in particular ways. I argue that Wesley presents the sight of Christ's suffering as having profound transformative power, at the heart of Christian experience. In doing so he constructs Methodist spirituality in a way that draws upon both the ancient Christian tradition of Passion devotion and contemporary eighteenth-century convictions about the power of the sight of suffering.

History

Journal

Journal of religious history

Volume

30

Issue

3

Pagination

311 - 330

Publisher

Wiley Blackwell Publishing Asia

Location

Carlton, Vic.

ISSN

0022-4227

eISSN

1467-9809

Language

eng

Notes

Published Online: 21 Aug 2006

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2006, Association for the Journal of Religious History

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