Susanna Wesley: Servant of God

by Sandy Dengler

The story of Susanna Wesley, mother of Charles and John Wesley, founders of the Methodist Church. A bright, beautiful woman whose life was turbulent but whose faith never wavered.

Genres: Biography, Christian, Nonfiction, History, Christian Non Fiction, Biography Memoir

Paperback

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Brenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. Mrs. Wesley's story is very encouraging on so many levels. Her determination of God's Word and to keep a positive outlook throughout her whole life despite the hardships and loss of life. She truly was a servant of God. The writing is deep and that is the true writer's way. Ms. Dengler did a wonderful job of sharing Wesley's life through her book.

[Christa]

Wow! What a hard life! I think what makes me so sad about her life is that while she was very religious for most of her life, she did not come to really know the Lord until almost the very end.

[Mason Sherrill · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️
I have not so thoroughly enjoyed a book in quite some time!
Susanna’s life was bitterly hard, but she was a woman full of stubborn faith & by the end of her life God had manifested His glory in her story so beautifully.
In regards to the book itself, it is written much like a fiction novel rather than a historical biography which was refreshing & kept me turning pages. I really enjoyed the writing style, but it did leave me wondering what was fact verses author’s creative liberty.
All in all, I must highly recommend. Susanna’s story will truly bless you!

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I have heard the story of how this lady spent an hour each week with each of her children. No small feet when she had 9! :) I always admired her.
This book is actually the first that I have read about her - unless I read some in school and do not remember! LOL Quite possible!
I was surprised by many things concerning Susanna's life. I guess I will have to read some more to get a better idea of how it all fits together.
I gave this a 3 star only because I don't know enough about Susanna to know if the things written here are totally factual. As I said, I need to read some more!

[Julie Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the life of Susanna Wesley, the mother of John Wesley and a theologian in her own right. She was the youngest of 25 children and could read Greek and Hebrew by the age of 13. She endured many trials during her lifetime including severe poverty, and the deaths of 9 of her 19 children during infancy. She is an excellent example of a strong woman during a time when women were not necessarily valued by society. It also provides a lot of church history and the divisions in the Anglican Church that provide the background for the rise of the Methodist movement.

[Joshua Pearsall · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful biography, and a great look into the life of Susanna Wesley. I do wish they had done a better job of noting clearly she did drop some of the dangerous heretical beliefs she held at 13, but that is one of the only marks I have against this wonderful work. I know understand why many jokingly (only slightly) Wesley a "mama's boy." If I had been raised in that life, I took would've been. Susanna is a great figure of faith. Not only someone striving to fully follow the Lord, but someone who is also plainly human and does have serious struggles that cause doubts and times of sorrow. Someone who, despite all, like Job looked to the Lord even when she doubted everything about what was happening. This is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it.

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sobering read! Susanna’s life was filled with tribulation and yet she remained steadfast in her faith and continued to disciple her children and nurture their love for the Lord. That was a great encouragement to me as a mother. Sam and Susanna’s story is certainly both an inspiration and a cautionary tale!

[Deborah Mickel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 1st biography I have read on Susanna Wesley so I'm not sure what was not told or given literary license. I liked what I read about her. I had previously put her on a pedestal (a place only God deserves). I did learn that she was just an ordinary woman who like all of us had many faults but she had an unwavering devotion to God and even when things were really tough, like a husband who kept them in debt and leaving her to raise the children, she continued to seek God and was always willing to be open to change in her methods with the children in always raising them to seek God and to follow Him. I did not think she was legalistic in her approach. A parent setting standards and rules to live by(especially biblical standards)is not legalistic. I now want to read more about her.

[Letitia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Servant of God my ass! She was some kind of crazy. There's a lot that's wrong with the Christian faith that Susanna Wesley embodies: legalism, ritual, discipline at the expense of joy... I began this biography expecting to be impressed by this woman and ended it wondering how on earth she came to be the paragon of womanhood she's purported to be. She was virtually a genius, I'll give her that.

[Christina Carter · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had read a book about Susanna Wesley and really enjoyed her life story. She was an amazing woman and Christian. I went to go find her story and read this book. This writer is a liberal woman with an agenda to show how Susanna's life was miserable, which it was not. I did not like this book at all. I am in search of the first book I read which left me with quite an impression of Susanna Wesley.

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tremendously encouraging life! Mrs. Wesley lived for God in spite of the hardships and disappointments she endured.
Through aloft that she raised two sons who became well known preachers. John and Charles Wesley.

[GenieD · Rating 1 out of 5]

I admire Susanna Wesley from other books I've read. This book did not do her justice. She was presented as shallow and self centered. NOT THE BEST BOOK ON HER.

[Wendy Huffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing woman of God! Truly an inspiring person in history. Would love to re-read this one. My daughters have loved getting to know her through this wonderful biography as well.

[Janie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always love to read about the other half's, the others who worked along side and who build up the leaders of the day. No this isn't the best on Susanna Wesley, but yet some insight.

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating look at her life and how her faith influenced her well-known sons John and Charles.

[Cindy DeLong · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book encouraging. I thought something seemed off. Susanna seemed a little harsh and then at the end we discovered that she had missed something important. She fervently believed in God but she lacked a personal relationship, so she worked so hard to please God doing what she thought he wanted but never asked Him what he wanted. I'm so glad she finally discovered the piece that gave her peace.
I was confused as to why she kept having babies when she knew that she couldn't physically or financially care for them. She knew where babies came from and was able, after a suggestion from a neighbor, to space them farther apart. So I believe she would have been able to stop having them. Plus she kept pawning off her parenting abilities to maids. If she needed help, she should have let the maids do the chores because she was the only one who could fill the position of mother. In her inattentiveness, one child was killed, one was maimed, and one was lost. She still didn't seem to learn her lesson. And speaking of lessons, she made teaching her children book knowledge a priority. It became clear that education was her God. Funny how a person can know the Bible inside and out and be able to read it in many languages yet not know the God of that Bible personally.

[Evan Þ. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This's a novelized biography of Susanna Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley the founders of Methodism, as well as seventeen other children. By this, I mean we get narrative chapters about important moments in her life including a bit of reflection on what went on in-between.

Wesley did not have an easy life. Despite her father being a wealthy Dissenting pastor, she returned to the Church of England as a girl thanks to becoming convinced through her theological reading that was the correct church. She married a Church of England rector, who was much poorer than her parents and spendthrifty. They quarreled repeatedly over finances, childraising, and theology - the last of which led to a year-long separation. Just as bad, though, was the children: nineteen pregnancies kept exhausting and sickening her, and so many children left next to no time for her to keep up her own studies.

[Staci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Goodness. Birthing 19 children alone would be hard without all the illness and poverty on top of it. Yet through all that hardship, Susanna managed to educate and raise her children. Her influence on them must have been profound as her husband was so often away. Yet, the revival in England through the work of her sons needed to touch her life as well - and it did not long before she died. Susanna in no ways lived what we would consider the "good life", but she lived an important life of shaping the hearts and minds of her children towards God, and the ripples of that over time and history continue on.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this book by a friend. I have always heard about Susanna Wesley, the mother of John and Charles Wesley, and I was very anxious to read it. I knew that she had 25 children and was a very godly woman who raised her children in an organized way. However I did not know that she was a theologian in her own right and about her rocky relationship with her husband. I loved that she made a commitment to spend one hour each day exclusively with one of her children. She was an inspiring woman and I loved the book.

[Sarah Angle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this easy read about such an encouraging woman. Cried with her about her lost babies as I was one day away from having my own baby arrive. Aaron set me up with mommy time (kid free bath and got to eat dinner and go to bed while he fed and put the kids in bed <3 ) and razzed me about getting a chance to read a "real" book. This story was uplifting on so many fronts.

[Heidi Morrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was assigned to me to read in high school. I learned a lot about the hymn writers of many songs we sing today. I learned even more about their mother, and her example inspired me to learn to become a Godly Mom to my future children. Decades later, I pray for wisdom each day to instill in my children a heart for serving God, no matter what that looks like...or where.

[Rachel W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Susanna Wesley was the youngest of 25 children, and could be considered a theologian herself. She is the mother of John Wesley, but this book is about her life of dedication to God and His Word, and her many hard trials as a mother and wife. In the end, praise the Lord, she accepts Jesus in her heart also, not just as head knowledge.

[Lance Towers · Rating 3 out of 5]

Susanna Wesley's son, John, founded the Methodist Church, preaching 40,000 sermons in his lifetime. Susanna faithfully loved God in her life too. Serving her family in the secrecy of her home was the great calling of her life! Dengler tersely tells the story.

[Kathy Montonera · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was first given this book over 30 years ago, but recently found it as I was cleaning off a bookshelf. In reading about Susanna Wesley I found that she had great courage to undergo all that she had with her husband her children and the life that she led.

[Azure Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! This was such an encouragement to me during postpartum with my first son, being a new wife, and just relying and trusting on God! It was very interesting to learn the roots of the methodist church and to see an example of a true godly woman with a servants heart. Highly recommend!

[Kendra · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow
what a woman of grit

it is so hard to read how bound she was to legalism. I think many believers struggle with that though: "I've done so much for God, look how good i am, why in earth am i going through this?!"

What a story that follows Job.

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of a very few books that I can read about three times a year without getting bored of it.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was an interesting book. I liked it a lot!

[Leona Houchens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye opening read at any age

I am a 65 year old woman whose learned so much about John Wesley’s mothers life! You will too! Selah

[Abby Rupert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book about Susanna Wesley's life. I wasn't expecting it to read more like a novel since the back cover calls it a biography.