Related Lives: Confessors and Their Female Penitents, 1450-1750 Book

Perhaps the only bright light of this book is that the author draws out a plethora of facts and incidents in Wesley's life that I was previously unaware of.

Other than this, the book was not written well. The facts about Wesley's life were scattered, not chronological and I found myself often confused about people like Whitfield who had already "died" in the book being brought up again and still interacting with John.

Aside from the poor writing style, the author writes with a clear bias in favor of Wesley. In reading many other accounts of Wesley, there are many sins that were not mentioned or brushed over, and he was painted in this book to be a sort of infallible spiritual leader.
The author's bias for Wesley clearly is demonstrated anytime he mentions George Whitefield. He crushes Whitfield and makes him out to be the antagonist in the relationship, when it was, in fact, Whitfield who wanted and sought reconciliation. John's firey personality left many bridges burned and his passion for order over doctrine is clear in how methodism has turned out even to this day. The author does not highlight any of Whitfields successes and makes John appear to be the only figure leading the spiritual awakening. Even if one views Wesley as more favorable than Whitfield, surely a more unbiased view could have been attempted to be coveyed in a book, giving facts of both sides, like Dillamores masterpiece on Whitfield.

At least it was a mercifully short read. If it was the length of the Whitfield biography, I could not have muscled through it.