Aldersgate

A1L1D2E1R1S1G2A1T1E1

proper noun

A ward in the City of London, Greater London, England (OS grid ref TQ3281).

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Meanings

proper noun
  1. A ward in the City of London, Greater London, England (OS grid ref TQ3281).
  2. historicalA religious experience undergone by John Wesley in May 1738.

    Consequently, Aldersgate is perceived as one more spiritual experience along the way of salvation

    2004, Methodist History, volumes 43-44, page 268
    2 more examples

    Aldersgate is the expression Methodists use to refer to the powerful spiritual experience in which, in Wesley's own words, his "heart was strangely warmed."

    2000, Jan Shipps, Sojourner in the Promised Land: Forty Years Among the Mormons

    J. Earnest Rattenbury, in his book, Wesley's Legacy in the World, quotes a man by the name of Riggs, author of The Churchmanship of John Wesley, as saying that: the Wesley before Aldersgate was not the same man as after Aldersgate.

    2007, John Fremont Beeson, John Wesley and the American Frontier, page 150
  3. A similar experience among his followers.

    Must our Aldersgate experience help us meet the needs of common men ?

    1938, Edward Laird Mills, Christian Advocate, Pacific edition, volume 87, page 565
    2 more examples

    Now we know that only the road ahead can be our Aldersgate. And it can happen there, albeit, that road may lead through new battlefields of moral struggle for a Christian society before it emerges upon the heights of spiritual ecstasy.

    1943, Michigan Christian Advocate, volume 70, page xxii

    We will not have had our Aldersgate until we can, on the one hand, confess with incredible joy that Christ has taken away our sins and then, on the other hand, plunge into the work of his kingdom

    1962, Motive, volume 23, page 16

Origin

(religious experience): Short for Aldersgate Street, the site of a Moravian meeting at which John Wesley had a religious experience.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Aldersgate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Aldersgate

MLA

“Aldersgate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Aldersgate. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Aldersgate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Aldersgate.

Source: Aldersgate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.