The constitutional authority of Dr. Jabez bunting over Wesleyan Methodism as seen through his correspondence

Abstract

The Constitutional Authority of Dr. Jabez Bunting over Wesleyan Methodism as seen through his correspondence, is an attempt to outline Dr. Jabez Bunting's influence over the Wesleyan Church from the moment of his entry into the Ministry in 1799 until the time of his retirement in 1855. There are two difficulties involved in attempting such a project: the first is that until Jabez Bunting's influence began to tell, Methodism suffered from a malady caused by the very lack of an effective constitution. Therefore when making a study of the Constitutional Authority of Jabez Bunting' it must be borne in mind that much of his efforts went into forming and developing that very constitution. The second difficulty is caused by the nature of the evidence used to compile this study. Dr. Bunting’s correspondence which is the basis for this thesis, though complete, is not as complete as it might be. In his Will Bunting requested (his two elder sons to examine, on his death, all the papers, letters and correspondence in his possession, edit them, and "to destroy such portion thereof as in their judgement it might be expedient so to dispose of". It is apparent, especially in the podt-1843 correspondence, that his son Percival complied with his father's-wish. I wish most sincerely to thank my supervisor Professor W. R. Ward for his kind help and patience in the preparation of this thesis. I also wish to express my deepest gratitude to Mr. and Mrs. M. Murray Threipland for allowing me to use the peace and "quite" of their home, where much of the actual writing was done. Finally I wish to thank Mrs. Joan Gibson for her invaluable help in the final production of this thesis.