Peter Forsaith, Ph.D., F.R.Hist.S.

Research Fellow, The Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History

Peter is a historian of society, religion and culture in 18th-century Britain. He received his Ph.D. from Oxford Brookes University in 2003, for 'The Correspondence of the Revd John W Fletcher: Letters to the Revd Charles Wesley Considered in the Context of the Evangelical Revival'. 

Key research interests: 

• Fine art and religion in the period of the Evangelical Revival, focusing on the generation and use of images of John Wesley.

• Revd John Fletcher, evangelical Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire (1729-1785).

• Sexual, gender, and religious identities in eighteenth-century Britain.

He is currently Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History, Oxford Brookes University. His primary responsibilities are in research and writing, while he also has care of its Methodist-related archives, library and art collections, as well as supporting researchers and study tour groups. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Select Publications

Image, Identity and John Wesley: A Study in Portraiture (Routledge, 2018).

The Ashgate Research Companion to World Methodism [edited, with William Gibson and Martin Wellings] (Farnham: Ashgate, 2013).

Religion, Gender, and Industry: Exploring Church and Methodism in a Local Setting [co-edited with Geordan Hammond] (Pickwick, 2011).

Methodism and History, Essays in Honour of John Vickers [edited and introduced, with Martin Wellings] (Oxford: Applied Theology Press, 2010).

Unexampled Labours: Letters of the Revd. John Fletcher to Leaders in the Evangelical Revival (Epworth Press, 2008).

John Wesley--Religious Hero?: A Brand Plucked from the Burning (Applied Theology Press, 2004).