John Wesley — "Women's preaching is flatly contrary to the Bible."
Women's preaching is flatly contrary to the Bible.
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More from John Wesley
"I have often thought that the greatest comfort in life, is to have a friend."
"It is a poor religion that consists in negatives only."
"I am not afraid of dying. I have no fear of death."
"I will not speak to you as a Methodist, but as a man of common sense."
"I have no time to be in a hurry."
About John Wesley (1703-1791)
English Anglican cleric and founder of Methodism, whose open-air preaching and class-meeting structure created the largest 18th-century evangelical revival. Closely associated with Charles Wesley (his hymn-writing brother) and George Whitefield (early co-revivalist, later doctrinal opponent). For an intellectual contrast, see George Whitefield, Calvinist evangelical revivalist — Whitefield's predestinarian Calvinism vs Wesley's free-grace Arminian theology split the early Methodist movement permanently in the 1739-41 break. The founding evangelical Calvinist-Arminian schism — the two parallel evangelical traditions American Christianity descends from.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
The statement asserts that women speaking as preachers or ministers is directly prohibited by scripture, treating the Bible as the final authority on gender roles in worship. It reflects a strict literalist reading of specific New Testament passages—primarily Paul's instructions that women remain silent in church—used historically to exclude women from ordained or public religious leadership.
Relevance to John Wesley
The attribution carries deep irony: Wesley later reversed this position, granting Sarah Crosby and Mary Bosanquet permission to preach publicly in Methodist societies—a radical departure from Anglican orthodoxy. If the quote reflects his early views, it shows his own theological evolution. Wesley's pragmatic willingness to bend tradition when revival demanded it ultimately made Methodism one of the first movements to actively utilize women preachers.
The era
In 18th-century England, the Church of England rigidly barred women from any preaching or clerical role, grounded in centuries of patristic interpretation of Pauline epistles. Women's public religious speech was socially scandalous and theologically condemned. The Evangelical Revival Wesley helped ignite created pressure on these norms, as women's spiritual gifts proved undeniable in practice, forcing leaders including Wesley himself to reconcile doctrine with observable ministry fruit.
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