American Saint: Francis Asbury and the Methodists. By John Wigger. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. xiv, 543 pp. $39.95, ISBN 978-0-19-538780-3.)

Abstract

Undeniably the most comprehensive and scholarly biography of Francis Asbury written in more than a century, John Wigger's American Saint fills a major gap in the historiography of American religion. This lively and well-researched narrative that includes more than one hundred pages of endnotes superbly expresses the character of a British immigrant from a working-class heritage whose labors significantly transformed the religious landscape of postrevolutionary America. Wigger aptly portrays this legendary Methodist evangelist as a doggedly determined itinerant preacher/administrator who shared John Wesley's goal of spreading scriptural holiness across the land. Although he lacked the intellectual gifts, oratory skills, and social graces of Wesley, Asbury had a remarkable ability to connect with ordinary people. Under his leadership, the church he crafted flourished from its infant beginnings into one of the largest religious bodies on the continent. Wigger is at his best when describing the administrative duties of this bachelor-bishop who, over the course of five decades, preached more than 10,000 sermons, ordained over 2,000 preachers, and traveled by horseback more than 130,000 miles across the American wilderness. The book also serves as a collective biography of the itinerant preachers under Asbury's charge. Almost 400 individuals, nearly 95 percent of whom are male, are listed in the volume's index. Creating a narrative with such a large supporting cast makes the volume particularly attractive to readers interested in the denominational history of the Methodist Episcopal Church. This focus, however, will not please readers who expect biographers to delve deeply into the psychosexual interior of their leading character. Wigger adequately describes Asbury's evangelical mind, although a thorough analysis of his innermost being remains to be written.