Phrases like “Wesleyan theology” and “Methodist doctrine” are utilized in a wide range of contexts and might imply a whole lot of various things. And for good purpose. The previous a number of centuries have been the scene of many shifts and far shaking in theology among Methodists and other Wesleyans. From the earnest, pious, and experiential orthodoxy of the brothers Wesley to the experiments with Protestant liberalism to involvement in varied liberationist actions to the retrieval and restoration of “paleo-orthodoxy,” it’s simple that most of the ships crusing underneath the flag of Wesleyan theology are transferring in numerous instructions—typically passing within the night time, and typically on a collision course.
The next survey of key theological texts is thus traditionally oriented and meant to be primarily descriptive in nature. It’s meant to assist the reader acquire a way of the varied migrations in addition to the breadth of doctrinal proposals throughout the broader Methodist custom and in modern Wesleyanism.
Understanding the Wesleys
John and Charles Wesley are sometimes (and rightly) understood to be influential within the founding of Methodist theology. Neither was a “systematic theologian” as we frequently consider that noble vocation. However each have been deeply theological and really prolific, and it is very important acquire a way of their deepest doctrinal convictions and commitments.
John Wesley’s sermons
To take action, there is no such thing as a higher place to start out than their sermons and hymns. John’s customary sermons can be found in varied editions (some forty-four; others fifty-two), however essentially the most accessible and useful is The Sermons of John Wesley: A Collection for the Christian Journey, edited by Kenneth J. Collins and Jason E. Vickers (Abingdon, 2013).
Wesleyan hymnody
The theology of Methodism is lyrically and really powerfully expressed throughout virtually eight hundred hymns in A Collection of Hymns, for the People Called Methodists.
Secondary sources on the theology of John Wesley
John Wesley was an “occasional” and pastorally-oriented theologian, and his thought is directed towards concrete conditions and is expressed in varied treatises and pastoral statements (as properly, after all, within the sermons). Fortunately, historic theologians have offered us with scholarly research that assist information us into his thought. Among the many most essential are:
John & Charles Wesley’s biographies
Moreover, useful biographies of the Wesleys embody the next:
- Henry D. Rack, Cheap Fanatic: John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism (Abingdon, 1992)
- Gareth Lloyd, Charles Wesley and the Battle for Methodist Id (Oxford, 2007)
The waxing & waning of Methodist theology within the lengthy nineteenth century
Wesleyan theology was articulated in a extra formal means within the period following the life and ministry of the Wesleys.
The systematization of Methodist theology
Within the early nineteenth century, Richard Watson was an essential determine within the systematic formalization of Methodist doctrine. His most distinguished work is Theological Institutes.
Watson’s work is echoed fairly carefully later within the nineteenth century by different Methodist theologians. Chief amongst them are:
Different theologians offered extra thorough and detailed statements of systematic theology. As an example
- Thomas O. Summers wrote Systematic Theology: A Complete Body of Wesleyan-Arminian Divinity for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South within the late-nineteenth century.
- Within the north, Randolph Sinks Foster wrote Research in Theism.
- Towards the top of the century, John Miley emerged as a large of Methodist theology. Alongside along with his influential work on the doctrine of the atonement, his Systematic Theology was printed in two prolonged volumes and made important impression.
- Amongst British Methodists, William Burt Pope’s one-volume A Higher Catechism of Theology and three-volume A Compendium of Christian Theology have been printed towards the top of the century and provided a sublime and discovered restatement and protection of classical Christian orthodoxy in a Wesleyan key.
- Richard Allen, the founding father of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, affords a theological treatise that’s directly concise and tightly woven, pastorally and existentially compelling, and relentlessly orthodox in addition to profoundly Methodist. His abstract of important Christian doctrine in The Life, Expertise, and Gospel Labors of Rt. Rev. Richard Allen is a stunningly stunning articulation of the necessities of Wesleyan theology.
Necessary contributions from the margins
Along with the texts written from, by, and for the mainstream Methodist motion (in america, the Methodist Episcopal Church), different theologians made essential contributions on the margins of the motion and within the smaller denominations that arose (usually in protest). As an example:
- When the Wesleyan Methodists separated (from the MEC) over points associated to slavery, Luther Lee offered theological steerage in his Components of Theology.
- Phoebe Palmer’s work was very influential within the holiness motion. Her testimonial, The Way of Holiness, was adopted by her extra correctly theological Present to My Christian Friend on Entire Devotion to God, in addition to different works.
- Though such an emphasis was not uniform, a “second blessing” or distinct second work of sanctifying grace was articulated by many theologians, pastors, and evangelists, e.g., Daniel Steele’s Love Enthroned and Milestone Papers or Beverly Carradine’s The Second Blessing in Image.
The Means of Holiness, with Notes by the Means; Being a Narrative of Non secular Expertise Ensuing from a Willpower to Be a Bible Christian
Revisionist initiatives
The nineteenth century was additionally a interval of serious doctrinal revision and alter. Whereas many theologians, as we have now famous, stay dedicated to the exposition and protection of creedal and confessional Christian instructing, others are dedicated to extra decidedly revisionist accounts. We see proof of the affect of liberal Protestant theology and philosophical idealism in lots of thinkers.
On the flip of the century, a number one revisionist is the thinker and theologian Borden Parker Bowne. His work in philosophy (e.g., Metaphysics: A Examine in First Ideas) is accompanied by work in doctrine (e.g., Theism and Research in Christianity). Bowne’s affect inside Methodist theology can hardly be overstated, and the philosophical idealism and personalism, together with the theological liberalism, ran deep and unfold far. The outcomes of that impression proceed to hold over Methodism, and they’re typically celebrated and typically criticized. William James as soon as stated, “the traditional spirit of Methodism evaporates underneath these splendidly ready rationalistic booklets … of a thinker like Professor Bowne.”
Secondary literature on nineteenth century developments
The sheer magnitude and variegation of theological developments on this period might be troublesome to know. Fortunately, a number of works of secondary scholarship are useful in sorting issues out. Amongst them, these stand out:
- The Cambridge Companion to American Methodism (Cambridge, 2013), edited by Jason E. Vickers, accommodates insightful articles written by specialists on a wide range of subjects.
- Kevin M. Watson’s Outdated or New College Methodism? The Fragmentation of a Theological Custom (Oxford, 2019) affords penetrating perception of the developments and “fragmentations” via historic evaluation of the rise of the Free Methodist Church.
- Extra just lately, Watson’s Doctrine, Spirit, and Discipline: A History of the Wesleyan Tradition in the United States (Zondervan, 2024) is a really helpful overview of the motion.
- Thomas H. McCall and Keith D. Stanglin provide each “backstory” (in seventeenth century Remonstrant and Anglican theologies) and an summary of the doctrinal developments of the nineteenth century in After Arminius: A Historic Introduction to Arminian Theology (Oxford, 2021).
Doctrine, Spirit, and Self-discipline: A Historical past of the Wesleyan Custom in america
Revisionist Wesleyan thought within the twentieth century
Modernist constructions
Such distinctly trendy philosophical and theological influences might be seen within the works of the Boston Personalists (e.g., Edgar Brightman, The Philosophy of Personalism: A Examine within the Metaphysics of Faith and A Philosophy of Faith), in addition to essential theologians equivalent to Henry C. Sheldon (e.g., “Modifications in Theology amongst American Methodists” within the American Journal of Theology [1906]) and Olin A. Curtis (e.g., The Christian Religion, Personally Given in a System of Doctrine).
The impression of Boston Personalism might be seen in varied works. As an example, the early-twentieth-century Nazarene theologian H. Orton Wiley’s three-volume Christian Theology is marked by personalist influences.
Course of & liberation theologies
Persevering with within the work of broadly revisionist theology, Methodist theologians have been very energetic within the improvement and protection of course of theology.
- John Cobb, the son of Methodist missionaries to Japan and a massively influential course of theologian, launched many Wesleyans to course of thought along with his ebook (written with David Ray Griffin), Course of Theology: An Introductory Exposition (Westminster, 1976).
- Equally, a lot of Catherine Keller’s work brings collectively liberationist and course of considerations within the deconstruction and reconstruction of Christian doctrine. As an example, her The Face of the Deep: A Theology of Changing into (Routledge, 2003) is a postmodern feminist expression of course of theology.
- On one other entrance, Jose Miguez Bonino was an Argentine Methodist theologian who represents these Wesleyans selling a model of liberation theology, and his Towards a Christian Political Ethics (Fortress, 1982) expresses the emotions of a sensible theology being labored out within the context of oppression.
Paleo-orthodoxy & the retrieval of classical Christian thought
Starting within the late-twentieth century and gaining momentum within the early twenty-first century, Wesleyan theology has witnessed a decisive shift. Whereas attentive to the considerations expressed by revisionist theologians of assorted varieties, many Wesleyan theologians are dedicated to creedal orthodoxy and are actively engaged within the retrieval of classical Christian theology. Right here a number of streams converge to type a gradual present of orthodoxy.
- Geoffrey Wainwright expresses one such stream. His work Doxology, The Reward of God in Worship, Doctrine, and Life: A Systematic Theology (Oxford, 1980) retains theology carefully tethered to liturgy and the lifetime of the worshipping group.
- Beth Felker Jones’s introductory textbook Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Living and Thinking Theologically (Baker Educational, 2014) continues on this vein.
- Thomas C. Oden’s large literary corpus is centered on the restoration of creedal orthodoxy and, extra broadly, on the consensus of the custom as expressed within the Vincentian Canon. Oden’s three-volume Systematic Theology (The Living God, Systematic Theology, Volume 1; The Word of Life, Systematic Theology: Volume 2; and Life in the Spirit, Systematic Theology: Volume 3; HarperCollins, 1987–1992) has been condensed right into a one-volume work entitled Basic Christianity. Lots of Oden’s former college students (and “grand-students”) proceed to work consistent with Oden’s common method.
- Extra just lately, the work of Thomas Noble is comparable in some essential respects. Like Wainwright and Oden, Noble attracts deeply from the wells of patristic theology whereas remaining attentive to the pastoral and doxological dimensions of theology. Noble’s work is, nonetheless, notably marked by the affect of Thomas F. Torrance (and, behind Torrance, Karl Barth), and it’s organized fairly in another way by starting with Christology earlier than transferring to theology correct (and associated subjects) after which to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit (and associated subjects). Noble’s first “quantity” (in three sure “half volumes”) entitled Christian Theology (Foundry, 2024) on the doctrine of the particular person and work of Christ runs to over one thousand pages, and we await the opposite volumes.
- One other associated challenge is that of William J. Abraham. His “canonical theism” challenge attracts deeply from varied ecumenical sources and is dedicated to rigorous expression and evaluation. His four-volume Divine Company and Divine Motion (Oxford, 2021) is clearly dedicated to creedal orthodoxy whereas additionally using the instruments of analytic philosophy and cultural evaluation.
Wesleyan theology now & later
Whither Wesleyanism? Whereas it’s too early to say with certainty, it isn’t laborious to sense a number of main themes and commitments converging. These embody the next: a deep dedication to creedal and confessional orthodoxy, and a corresponding involvement within the challenge of retrieval theology; a deepening conviction within the authority and truthfulness of the Christian Scriptures, and a corresponding engagement within the theological interpretation of the Bible; a rigorous employment of analytic theology, the place acceptable; and a eager sensitivity to the social, moral, liturgical, and pastoral dimensions of theology.
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