Wesley’s <i>Survey of the Wisdom of God</i> : Natural Aesthetics and Ecology Strangely Warmed

ABSTRACT John Wesley is well known among Methodists for his emphasis on heart religion and the felt sense of assurance or inward peace. However, Wesley’s wider publishing corpus was eclectic in content, and it reveals a mind steeped in the curiosities and scientific developments of the early-modern, North Atlantic world. This is reflected in his 1763 publication on natural philosophy, A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation: Or, a Compendium of Natural Philosophy. This article argues that, given the broad impacts of climate change on planet earth and the de-stabilization of natural systems, Wesley’s Survey has lasting value for the modern church in an age of crisis—for its aesthetic sensibility toward the created order, and the moral response it encourages for contemporary Methodists to care for creation.