The Second Edition of the Obras de Wesley
It is with tremendous joy that we announce this month a new and completely revised edition of the Works of Wesley in Spanish, the Obras de Wesley. The first edition, which finished publication in August, 1998, was a monumental gift to the Spanish-speaking world. Before that year there had been a few collections of sermons —the vast majority translated into 19th-century Spanish— and a few Wesleyan hymns. But with the advent of the Obras, any Spanish-speaking person could delve much deeper into the writings of this important figure for the universal church. The work of the team of translators, under the guidance of Justo González, was a monumental feat.
As Mortimer Arias said in 2001:
"Millions of Christians, descendants of the current of Evangelical Revival and of the Wesleyan side in particular, will have in their hands this key to unlock the treasures of Christian life and discipleship, of evangelical theology and spirituality, of evangelization and integral ministry, of prophetic and contextual social ethics, as well as a direct access to the person of Juan Wesley, with all his original facets."
In other words, it was now possible not only to read what Wesley wrote, but to know and feel the character of the man himself as never before.
Because the potential audience for the Obras was —and still is— so large, it was important to make them more and more available in line with technological advances. The first print run of the Works, some 500 sets, was distributed throughout the Americas in the first few years after it was published. Then in 2006 they were digitized for distribution on CD. Thousands of people came to have the Obras for their personal use through this more accessible and economical format.
But the real explosion in the use of the Obras came in 2012, when the Wesley Heritage Foundation and the newly established Institute for Wesleyan Studies uploaded the files of all fourteen volumes to their websites as a free download worldwide. In recent years, the average is more than one download per day, every day, from every country in the Americas, Spain, and many others where there are Spanish speakers.
It is impossible to list all the uses that people have found for the Obras de Wesley. In recent years we know of pastors and lay people using Wesley's writings for personal study and as teaching aids. There are seminarians who find in the Obras a much-needed perspective for their assignments. We hear from students in graduate programs in fields as diverse as social action or rhetoric using Wesley as a central source for their research. And there are many who speak of finding in Wesley —or rediscovering in some cases— the lost roots of a deep, healthy, and active faith. In short, the Obras de Wesley is a multipurpose tool. We're in awe of what people have done with them so far, and hopeful for what the future holds.
This new edition is the result of an exhaustive process of revision of each word —each letter and number— of the text and the indices. By the very nature of a revision, we don't expect the reader to notice any corrections, since they contribute to smoother, unhindered reading. Even the page numbering of the first edition is maintained, so that the academic references to the Obras are the same in both editions. We thank God for the careful work of the review team in Colombia.
All fourteen volumes are maintained as free downloads on the WHF and IEW websites. But we are very happy to offer the Obras in print for the first time in 25 years. The fourteen volumes with their attractive new covers present a Wesley rooted in history, but always relevant to the present. But there is still a lot to translate, and new volumes will be added to this new edition as they are published.
We hope readers enjoy this fresh, new edition and are both comforted and challenged by Wesley's words. As Elbert Wethington, first president of the Wesley Heritage Foundation, rightly said: "The Obras de Wesley are distributed with the hope and prayer that they will be instruments of the Holy Spirit to generate intense experiences of the Gospel throughout the Spanish-speaking world." This has been—and always will be—our hope and prayer.
Please pray during the coming months as we continue to make the remaining volumes available. You can pray for financial resources to finish this task, but also for new readers to come to Wesley through this edition. We know the Spanish-speaking church will be inspired to much good through fresh access to these writings. They –and we– appreciate your prayers!
