In May 1738, during a religious society meeting on Aldersgate Street in London, England, the Anglican cleric John Wesley experienced a profound spiritual awakening, famously noting that his heart felt 'strangely warmed'. His brother, Charles Wesley, experienced a similar evangelical conversion just days earlier. These twin spiritual breakthroughs catalyzed the launch of the Methodist movement, a massive revival that bypassed formal church structures to preach directly to working-class crowds in open fields, fundamentally reshaping the religious, social, and cultural landscape of the English-speaking world.

Charles Wesley went on to compose over 6,500 hymns, including 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing', transforming the hymn into a highly dynamic, complex theological poem. His work infused English poetry with an intense, first-person emotionalism that directly anticipated the subjective focus of the Romantic poets.