Hearts in the Wilderness: Journeys into the Moral Economy of Eighteenth Century Britain

In this series of interrelated narrative essays, historian Ron Southern explores some of the difficulties of living a righteous life in 18th century England, Scotland, Ireland and the Middle East. Using the letters and journals of John Wesley, Richard Viney and John Cennick, first hand accounts of Presbyterian revival, and Moravian congregation and missionary diaries, he attempts to conjure the sensibilities of the Christly faced with the exigencies of living in a world dominated by Satan. In so doing he paints a vivid picture of the denizens of the 18th century street, of a geography where the chapel extended into the field, where marshes, deserts and woods were real manifestations of good and evil, and where every action and thought gave an insight into the battle between Heaven and Hell.