The Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion: A Sect in Action in Eighteenth-Century England (Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs)

This is the first detailed study of the operation of the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion, an important group in early Methodism. Alan Harding explores how the Connexion developed locally; the identity of its preachers and their training; the religious and social origins of those who joined its congregations; and the relationship between central direction and local initiative. The book examines the Connexion's attitudes to the Church of England and also to Dissent, to whose revival in the later eighteenth century it made a significant contribution. It considers the Connexion's relationship with other sections of the Revival, and reflects on the doctrinal issues that divided it from Weleyan Methodism.