One of the major interpreters and editors of John Wesley in this century has been Albert C. Outler. His attempt to rescue Wesley from the "Methodist cocoon" and to see him whole against his own time and ours has made Outler one of the primary players in the current renaissance of Wesley studies. He, more than anyone, played a key role in the reconsideration of Wesley's ecumenical and theological significance.

It is ironic that while Outler helped others to see Wesley in a larger interpretive framework, Outler's own writings have nowhere been pulled together so that they can be seen whole. The editors of this volume have tried to remedy that lack. The double aim of this anthology is (1) to provide Outler's key essays that establish Wesley as a significant reappropriator of the Christian tradition for the eight-eenth century, and (2) thereby to provide the evidence that Outler himself is such a "traditioner" for our century.

Oden and Longden have written introductions to each essay and an overview of Outler's work that will help pastors and laity to enter into his studies and that will furnish scholars with the basic elements necessary to begin an interpretation of Outler's work itself. By dividing the essays into those about Wesley and those that inter-pret the movement that developed under Wesley's influence, the editors point to Outler's nuanced balancing of Wesley's personal influence as mentor and the contributions of the Wesleyan tradition as to ecumenical Christianity