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Andrew C. Thompson

Category Archives: Doctrine & Theology

John Wesley and the Power of Christian Doctrine

27 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by Andrew C. Thompson in Arkansas Conference, Doctrine & Theology, John Wesley, Justification, Salvation, Sanctification/Holiness, United Methodist Church, Wesleyan Theology

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John Wesley was passionate about doctrine. In fact, his love of doctrine is one of the more underappreciated (and sometimes even unknown) parts of his leadership of the Methodist movement.

Wesley was such a believer in the importance of doctrine that it was—ironically—one of the things that caused him to get in trouble with his own Church of England. We see an example of that in a sermon from 1789 called “Prophets and Priests.” In answering critics who claimed that his actions amounted to separation from the church, Wesley responded: “I hold all the doctrines of the Church of England. I love her Liturgy. I approve her plan of discipline, and only wish it could be put in execution.”

His appreciation for the way that the church’s doctrine and discipline were laid out on paper led Wesley to want to see them truly put into action. In fact, he believed that’s what the Methodist movement was attempting to do. When people would criticize him for planning Methodist services in the city of Dublin at the same time as regular church services, one of the reasons Wesley gave for why he did such a thing was to ensure that the people would have a chance to hear “that sound doctrine which is able to save their souls.”

Nowadays there are all kinds of misconceptions about the nature of the message that Wesley preached and wrote about. Sometimes he is depicted as an excitable evangelist that just wanted to get people pumped up about their faith. Other times you’ll hear people make comments like, “I just really appreciate Wesley’s message about grace.”

Both of these points of view miss the fact that there was actually a lot of concrete content to what Wesley was trying to get across. It wasn’t just about being energetic for Jesus (though that is certainly a good thing!). And it wasn’t just a generalized message about grace or love. Wesley’s understanding of the Christian gospel had fundamental doctrinal content—and he believed that content was of paramount importance for people to hear.

When pressed to summarize the Christian doctrine he thought most central to the Bible, Wesley typically spoke in terms of a three-part scheme: the doctrine of sin and the need for repentance; the doctrine of justification by faith and new birth; and the doctrine of sanctification or holiness. He imagines these three doctrinal heads as the porch, door and house of religion in a famous example from the Principles of a Methodist Farther Explained in 1746.

Wesley writes, “Our main doctrines… are three, that of repentance, of faith, and of holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; the third is religion itself.”

Wesley’s intense commitment to core Christian doctrine can be explained by the fact that he really believed people’s salvation was at stake in what was being preached by Methodist preachers. The pulpit was not a place to go off into flights of theological fancy, nor was it the proper arena for the preacher to test out his own pet theories about the Bible. It was a place solely meant for the preaching of the meat-and-potatoes gospel of Jesus Christ.

One of the last retrospective essays Wesley wrote about the Methodist movement was a short 1786 piece called “Thoughts upon Methodism.” It is there that he shared his thoughts about the prospects for the Methodist movement in the years to come. And since Wesley was not a man to mince words, he stated exactly what he thought the dangers were to the revival that he had led, by that point, for over 45 years.

He writes, “I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out.”

Our present age is one in which all three of those points Wesley makes are being tested in the extreme—doctrine, spirit and discipline. The Methodist movement may go one of any number of directions in the years to come. If it is to go in a Wesleyan direction, the Methodists themselves must surely take heed of Wesley’s advice and embrace the biblical doctrine that Wesley himself embraced in the movement’s first flourishing.

This essay also appeared in the Arkansas United Methodist newspaper’s April 7, 2017 edition. You can read it in the online version of the AUM newspaper here.

Holy Love — Part 4

19 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by admin in Bible, Discipleship, Doctrine & Theology, Eschatology, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Preaching, Worship

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God created the world in love. And he will redeem it in love fully in the end. There is a wonderful, grace-filled symmetry to God’s design.

Part 4 of the sermon series on the First Letter of John is “From Beginning to End,” based on 1 John 4:13-19. When God’s love is perfected in us, we may have confidence on the day of judgment! Here’s the link:

We love because he first loved us! Hallelujah! Amen.

Holy Love — Part 3

15 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by admin in Bible, Discipleship, Doctrine & Theology, Ethics, FUMC Springdale, Jesus Christ, Preaching, Worship

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Our third sermon in the series on the First Letter of John is “The Gift that Multiplies.” That’s the wonderful thing about God’s love: it is the only thing in this world that does not diminish with use. You can’t use it up! Instead, holy love thrives only multiplies the more it is received, returned, and given. Here’s the sermon video:

It is based on 1 John 3:16-18 — “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

The John Wesley Collection

25 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by admin in Discipleship, Doctrine & Theology, John Wesley, Local Church Ministry, Practical Theology, Seedbed, Spiritual Formation, Wesleyan Theology, Wesleyan Tradition

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John Wesley Collection_From Almost to AltogetherHere’s a development that holds great promise for readers interested in Wesleyan spirituality and ministry: The John Wesley Collection.

The John Wesley Collection (or “JWC”) is a new venture by Seedbed Publishing. Its purpose is to gather together and publish the writings of John Wesley and other early Methodist figures. These writings are collected into volumes aimed at people hungry for solid theological material related to how we should understand God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, grace, discipleship, salvation, and much more.

As the folks at Seedbed put it themselves: “Seedbed believes these writings are as relevant to our context today as they were in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Consequently, we consider it a sacred calling to join with those who are recapturing John Wesley’s publishing vision for the twenty-first century.”

Several months ago I took over as executive editor of the JWC. I’m truly excited about this project! So far, we have published volumes by Wesley that contain his discourses on the Sermon on the Mount and his Plain Account of Christian Perfection. We’ve also published The Tongue of Fire, a work on the Holy Spirit by a 19th century Irish Methodist missionary and pastor named William Arthur. Most recently, we have come out with a volume of nine sermons by Wesley on the nature of faithful discipleship called From Almost to Altogether: Sermons on Christian Discipleship.

Check out this video on the JWC:

 

It’s true that there a number of ways people can access much of John Wesley’s writings these days: student editions of Wesley’s sermons intended for seminary use, Wesley texts offered in online formats, and the scholarly Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley.

Yet none of these formats is really designed for reading and study with an eye to spiritual formation. Seedbed’s hope is that the volumes of the JWC will be used in churches: by pastors, youth ministers, laypeople in small groups, etc.

I recently gave a copy of From Almost to Altogether to every staff member of my church. Within a few days, two of those staff members had asked if I’d be willing to help guide them through a few of the sermons included in it. As you can imagine, my answer was an enthusiastic yes!

The great thing about the JWC is that it is an ongoing project. Seedbed will be producing new volumes of Wesleyan material in it for years to come. And I’ll do my best to keep you updated on it!

 


 

Creeds, John Wesley, and the Christian Faith: Follow-up to a Recent Post

13 Monday Apr 2015

Posted by admin in Creeds, Doctrine & Theology, John Wesley, United Methodist Church, Wesleyan Theology

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Of all the topics least likely to go viral online, I’d think that analyzing the degree to which the Christian creeds were significant to John Wesley’s theology would rank pretty high. But surprisingly, that seems to have happened over the past few days. Well, maybe ‘go viral’ is a bit of an overstatement. Still, it’s been pretty popular. I take that as a sign of hope for the church!

For anyone who would find it helpful, I have listed a rundown of some blog posts on John Wesley and the creeds below. Some are new, while others go back aways. As I become aware of others, I’ll update the list. (Feel free to send me links to such posts or leave them in the comments section below.)

Posts on John Wesley and the Christian Creeds:

  1. “Was Wesley’s Faith a Creedal Faith?” by David F. Watson at Musings and Whatnot
  2. “John and Charles Wesley Lived by the Creeds” by Joel L. Watts at Unsettled Christianity
  3. “John Wesley, Americans, and Sectual Experimentation” by Joel L. Watts at Unsettled Christianity
  4. “John Wesley, the Trinity, and the Creeds” by Andrew C. Thompson at AndrewThompson.com
  5. “John Wesley’s Creed” by Drew McIntyre at Uniting Grace
  6. “John Wesley on the Creeds” by Kevin M. Watson at Vital Piety

Posts on the Role of the Creed in Wesleyan Spirituality:

  1. “Creedal Faith” by David F. Watson and William J. Abraham at Ministry Matters
  2. “Creeds, Orthodoxy, and What is Required of United Methodists” by Stephen Rankin of Rankin File

Posts on the Place of the Creeds in the United Methodist Church:

  1. “The Ancient Creedal Faith” by Daniel McClain Hixon at United Methodist Resources
  2. “The Revolutionary Nicene Creed” by Taylor Burton-Edwards at United Methodist Worship
  3. “Jesus Christ in United Methodist Doctrine: Exploring the Biblical and Creedal Basis” by Kenneth Loyer at United Methodist Scholars for Christian Orthodoxy
  4. “In the UMC, the Creed Supercedes John Wesley” by Joel L. Watts at Unsettled Christianity

There is some topical overlap within each individual essay, of course. I’ve listed each of them under the topic that seems to fit best on the whole. This is a list that more than doubled in length within a couple of days of my original publication of this post. So I’ll keep adding new entires as I become aware of them. Please feel free to send me links to blog posts or online essays that you know about but which don’t appear on the list at present.

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John Wesley, the Trinity, and the Creeds

10 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by admin in Creeds, Doctrine & Theology, John Wesley, Wesleyan Theology

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John Wesley

John Wesley

How Trinitarian was John Wesley? What was his view of the Creeds?

Sometimes you set your pen down and forget to take it up again. I did that a couple of years ago when I was digging into John Wesley and the Christian creeds. Fortunately, this excellent post by David Watson served as a reminder. Watson asks the question, “Was Wesley’s faith a creedal faith?” It’s a good question, given the confusion that exists over whether such aspects of Christian orthodoxy as the Trinity, the creeds, and even classical Christian doctrine were important to his teaching and ministry.

Why do I say there is confusion over such things? The reason is that Wesley is often quoted (or even mis-quoted) out of context. People who know just enough about Wesley to have heard such phrases as “Catholic Spirit” or “If your heart is as my heart, give me your hand” or “think and let think” will often use such snippets as a way to underwrite their view of what a pluralistic theology should look like.

While I’m not sure whether this particular church bothered to look into the Wesleyan tradition before formulating what they call their “philosophy of ministry,” I do find it fascinating that a congregation of the United Methodist Church could ever get to the point of offering this description of God: “We believe that God is the ‘force’ that constantly goes before us…leading us through all ‘wilderness’ experiences into the promise of what we were created to be. We strive to be open to God’s surprises as we explore new expressions of sacred scripture as they are revealed to us through the Bible, through others, and through our sacred Earth (trees, animals, plants and rocks).” [1] Yet, there it is. It is a statement utterly at odds with our Articles of Religion and Confession of Faith. And yes, it is also at odds with Wesley’s own theological views.

John Wesley and the Doctrine of the Trinity

In an important essay entitled, “Wesley’s Trinitarian Hermeneutics,” Geoffrey Wainwright argues that Wesley’s thought was so deeply Trinitarian that he interpreted all of Scripture through a Trinitarian theological lens. Drawing on Wesley’s prayers, biblical commentaries, and sermons, Wainwright contends that “Wesley was thoroughly trinitarian in his understanding of the composition of the Scriptures, in his ways of proceeding with the Scriptures, and in his reading of the content of the Scriptures” [2]. While yes, it is true that Wesley once said he “dare not insist upon anyone’s using the word ‘Trinity'” since the term is not in the Bible itself, he also believed that the divine reality to which the term points is, in fact, the truth about who God is. [3] He contends in his sermon, “On the Trinity,” that the revelation of the Triune God “enters into the very heart of Christianity” and “lies at the root of all vital religion.” When we come to know God through true faith, the God whom we know is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, for indeed, “the knowledge of the Three-One God is interwoven with all true Christian faith, with all vital religion.” [4]logo_trinity-books copy

Elsewhere, Wesley actually puts the very possibility of salvation in a distinctly Trinitarian framework when he elaborates upon his view of prevenient grace. Salvation in the life of the believer, Wesley argues in “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” must be considered as originating not at the point of new birth but rather with God’s prior activity upon the soul. We speak of such divine work as prevenient grace, which includes “all the ‘drawings’ of ‘the Father’, the desires after God, which, if we yield to them, increase more and more; all that ‘light’ wherewith the Son of God ‘enlighteneth everyone that cometh into the world’, showing every man ‘to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with his God’; all the convictions which his Spirit from time to time works in every children of man.” [5] This passage is significant for how a practical theologian like Wesley thought about the Trinity — namely, that the Triune nature of God becomes most real to us not through the conceptual formulations of academic theology (important though those may be), but rather as we come to know God through the present salvation that God gives to us through grace.

Wesley’s “Creedal Faith” and the Place of the Creeds in Methodist Worship

If Wesley’s commitment to the Trinitarian view of God is occasionally suspected by eager revisionists in our day, then skepticism about the role and function of the creeds is on a whole other level. Here, at least on the surface, that skepticism has a bit more warrant. For example, Wesley once stated that early on the Oxford Methodists were tenaciously orthodox, “firmly believing not only the three creeds, but whatsoever they judged to be the doctrine of the Church of England, as contained in her Articles and Homilies.” [6] The “three creeds” here would be the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian — which are affirmed together in Article 8 of the 39 Articles of Religion. [7] Yet later in his life, Wesley became uncomfortable with the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed, which have no parallel in the other two creeds. The Athanasian Creed asserts that it is laying forth the “Catholick Faith,” and says, “Which Faith, except every one do keep whole and undefiled: without doubt he shall perish everlastingly.” The creed goes on, following the description of the divine persons, to state, “He therefore, that will be saved: must thus think of the Trinity.” [8]

So why the shift in Wesley’s creedal view — at least as it pertains to the Creed of St. Athanasius? It isn’t that Wesley disliked the Athanasian Creed on the whole. On the contrary, he thought its positive description of the nature of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit represents a strong theological account of the doctrine of God. In the same place where he says that he does not believe those who do not subscribe to the creed will be damned, he notes that the “explication” of the Trinity in the Athanasian Creed is “the best I ever saw.” [9] What he did not like about the creed is its seeming assertions that those who do not think the right things about the Trinity will be condemned to Hell for their errors in thought.

To subscribe to such a view, for Wesley, would mean that faith at its heart is about intellectual assent. Taken to an extreme, it might mean that only trained theologians could be saved! Such a view is preposterous to Wesley, because he contends that faith is “not barely a speculative, rational thing, a cold lifeless assent, a train of ideas in the head” but rather a “disposition of the heart.” [10] We experience present salvation most fully through the transformation of our affections, the quickening of our spiritual senses, and the inculcation of inward holiness. In other words, the way to think about the place of Trinitarian faith is not so much in a sterile assent to the words of the Athanasian Creed but rather akin to the description of the work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as Wesley gives it in the passage from “The Scripture Way of Salvation” above: it is about being drawn close by the Father, enlightened with holy love by the Son, and convicted each day by the presence of the Spirit.

Does this mean that the Christian faith can’t be described creedally, or that the creeds should not be used as corporate confessions in worship? At times, some later Methodists have pushed in this direction for three reasons: first, because of Wesley’s critical comments on the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed; second, because he deleted Article 8 from the Articles of Religion when he prepared a revised version of the Articles to send to the American Methodists in 1784 as they prepared to establish a separate church; and third, because Wesley’s Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America (also sent in 1784) removes the Nicene Creed from its place in the Eucharistic liturgy. [11]

I actually think there are reasonable explanations for all three of these points. I’ll offer my point of view on them below, but first I want to highlight an often overlooked example of Wesley’s creedal faith, which comes in an important text where he was attempting to explain the broad areas of agreement between Protestant and Catholic views. That document is Wesley’s Letter to a Roman Catholic, and he wrote it in 1749 in the hopes that Roman Catholics in Ireland (where the Methodists were beginning to operate) would read it.

Here’s how Wesley describes the foundational beliefs of Protestant Christians in the Letter to a Roman Catholic :A Letter to a Roman Catholic by John Wesley

I am assured that there is an infinite and independent Being, and that it is impossible there should be more than one; so I believe, that this One God is the Father of all things, especially of angels and men; that he is in a peculiar manner the Father of those whom he regenerates by his Spirit, whom he adopts in his Son, as co-heirs with him, and crowns with an eternal inheritance; but it is still higher sense the Father of his only Son, whom he hath begotten from eternity.

I believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Saviour of the world, the Messiah so long foretold; that, being anointed with the Holy Ghost, he was a Prophet, revealing to us the whole will God; that he was a Priest, who gave himself a sacrifice for sin, and still makes intercession for transgressors; that he is a King, who has all power in heaven and in earth, and will reign till he has subdued all things to himself.

I believe that he is the proper, natural Son of God, God of God, very God of very God; and that he is the Lord of all, having absolute, supreme, universal dominion over all things; but more peculiarly our Lord, who believe in him, both by conquest, purchase, and voluntary obligation.

I believe that he was made man, joining the human nature with the divine in one person; being conceived by the singular operation of the Holy Ghost, and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who, as well after as before she brought him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin.

I believe he suffered inexpressible pains both of body and soul, and at last death, even the death of the cross, at the time that Pontius Pilate governed Judea, under the Roman Emperor; that his body was then laid in the grave, and his soul went to the place of separate spirits; the third day he rose again from the dead; that he ascended into heaven; where he remains in the midst of the throne of God, and the highest power and glory, as mediator to the end of the world, has God to all eternity; that, in the end he will come down from heaven, to judge every man according to his works; both those who shall be then alive, and all who have died before that day.

I believe in the infinite and eternal Spirit of God, equal with the Father and the Son, to be not only perfectly holy in himself, but the immediate cause of all holiness in us; enlightening our understandings, rectifying our wills and affections, renewing our natures, uniting our persons to Christ, assuring us of the adoption of sons, leading us in our actions; purifying and sanctifying our souls and bodies, to a full and eternal enjoyment of God. [12]

Most remarkable to me about these paragraphs is that, in a context where the need to express himself in just the right way was at a premium (i.e., an ecumenical treatise), Wesley resorts to a creedal form of writing. He is attempting to represent to a Roman Catholic audience all that “a true Protestant believes” (to use his own words). And he does so through a version of the creed. That tells us something about whether Wesley held what we might call a creedal faith. In short, he did.

To conclude, I want to offer a few notes about the three points of controversy surrounding Wesley’s valuation of the creeds as proper for Christian worship which I listed above:

1) On Wesley’s critical comments on the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian Creed: I’ve actually covered this above, so I won’t repeat myself here. Suffice it to say that Wesley did not believe salvation consisted in right thinking so much as a right heart.

2) On Wesley’s deletion of Article 8 from the 24 Articles of Religion he prepared for the American Methodists: There are really three possibilities here. The first is that his ambivalence about the Creed of St. Athanasius was so great that he simply removed the entire article during his revisions. (This might particularly be the case given that Article 8 states that all three creeds “may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture.” He certainly believed the positive clauses about the three persons of the Trinity were Scriptural, but the damnatory clauses of the Athanasian creed he believed were not.). A second possibility is that he saw Article 8 on the creeds as redundant — a possibility which may have some weight to it if he thought the purpose of the Article was to affirm faith in the Trinity. After all, Article 1 already affirms that faith, and Articles 2-4 (in the Methodist revision) speak to the doctrines of Christology and Pneumatology. Finally, a third possibility is one mentioned by Paul Blankenship in one of the few academic essays ever published on the Wesleyan revisions to the Articles of Religion, namely, that one factor in his editorial work was an attempt to fit the new situation in America. Blankenship’s suggestion is that, “The omission of Article VIII may have been in line with Wesley’s announced intention to leave the American Methodists free ‘simply to follow the Scriptures and the Primitive Church.'” [13] That is, Wesley knew that the Americans were not going to be worshiping in as formal a style as was typical in the parish church setting in England. He counted on that, because he knew what Methodist preaching services and prayer meetings typically looked like. He therefore constructed the Sunday Service to attempt to retain a liturgical form but with less structure and complexity. By omitting the Article on the creeds, he would have been bringing consistency to what would be reflected in the liturgies of the Sunday Service — which brings us to the final note…

3) On Wesley’s Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America removing the Nicene Creed from its original place in Book of Common Prayer’s Eucharistic liturgy: The first thing to mention here is that Wesley did retain the Apostles’ Creed in the Morning and Evening Prayer liturgies. [14] He also retained the Apostles’ Creed in question-and-answer form in the Baptismal liturgy. [15] So it isn’t the case that he thought the creeds were improper or not useful in worship settings. The question rather is about which creed and, possibly, in which settings. The creed he removes from its normal liturgical placement in the Book of Common Prayer is the Nicene Creed, which is situated between the collect and the homily. So why would he do that? It might be that Wesley thought the Nicene Creed was too long, and lacking in the kind of rhythm to which the Apostles’ Creed lends itself when spoken aloud and in unison. But if that were the case, why wouldn’t he just substitute the Apostles’ for the Nicene and thus retain a place for a creedal declaration in the liturgy? Since he did not offer a reason, it is difficult to know. It should be noted that Wesley retains other Trinitarian elements to the Eucharistic service, such as the opening collect, the prayer of thanksgiving following the distribution of the elements, and the pastoral benediction at the end of the service. (He also retains a prefatory prayer to the Great Thanksgiving, which is to be prayed on the Feast of the Holy Trinity.) So it might be the case that he simply removed the creed as he removed other elements of the liturgy from the BCP, to make the service shorter (a move that would have lent greater weight to the sermon itself, the centrality of which was clearly part of typical Methodist worship). Finally, it is possible that the removal of the creed was one way to accentuate the way in which the Lord’s Supper could serve as a converting ordinance, through which people could be brought to a living faith in God. In that line of thinking, the creed could serve as a barrier because it would suggest that those who come forward for Holy Communion already have a fully formed faith in the Triune God, rather than simply a sense of unworthiness and a desire to know God. While it is regrettable that Wesley’s deletion of Article 8 and his removal of the Nicene Creed from the Eucharistic liturgy had the effect of diminishing the place of the Nicene Creed from American Methodism generally, I am not at all convinced that that was his intention. I also think that his retention of the Apostles’ Creed in a number of places in the Sunday Service is plenty of evidence in favor of Wesley’s positive valuation of creedal confessions in the midst of Christian worship.

If you’ve gotten this far in this little essay, it’s likely that you have an opinion on all of this as well. Want to share it? Feel free to leave a comment below.

*See this follow-up post for a list of online essays and blog posts that focus on the Creeds in John Wesley’s theology, Wesleyan spirituality and the contemporary United Methodist Church.


Notes

[1] Statement on Philosophy of Ministry, St. Francis in the Foothills United Methodist Church (Tucson, AZ). URL: http://www.stfrancisumc.org/who-we-are.html (accessed April 10, 2015).

[2] Geoffrey Wainwright, “Wesley’s Trinitarian Hermeneutics,” Wesleyan Theological Journal 36:1 (Spring 2001): 9.

[3] Wesley, “On the Trinity,” ¶4, in vol. 2 of the Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1976—), 377-378. This edition of Wesley’s works is hereafter cited as Works.

[4] Wesley, “On the Trinity,” ¶17, in Works 2:384-385.

[5] Wesley, “The Scripture Way of Salvation,” ¶I.2, in Works 2:156-157.

[6] Wesley, “On Laying the Foundation of the New Chapel,” ¶I.3, in Works 3:582.

[7] In the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer, Article 8 reads, “The three Creeds, Nicene Creed, Athanasius Creed, and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed, ought thoroughly to be received and believed: for they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture. See Brian Cummings, ed., The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 676.

[8] See Cummings, ed., The Book of Common Prayer, 257-258.

[9] Wesley, “On the Trinity,” ¶3, in Works 3:377. It was well known in Wesley’s day that St. Athanasius did not actually write the Athanasian Creed, and Wesley was aware of it himself. He refers to the creed as “the creed commonly ascribed to Athanasius” in this same paragraph of the sermon. See also ibid., n.10, for the editorial comment on this same issue.

[10] Wesley, “Salvation by Faith,” ¶I.4, in Works 1:120.

[11] On Wesley’s omission of Article 8 from the revised Methodist Articles of Religion, see Nolan B. Harmon and John W. Bardsley, “John Wesley and the Articles of Religion,” Religion in Life 22:2 (March 1953): 280-291. For the original text of the Sunday Service, see James F. White, ed., John Wesley’s Sunday Service of the Methodists in North America (Nashville: UMPH, 1984).

[12] Wesley, “A Letter to a Roman Catholic,” ¶¶6-8, in vol.10 of the Works of John Wesley, edited by Thomas Jackson, reprint edition (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1958), 81-82.

[13] Paul F. Blankenship, “The Significance of John Wesley’s Abridgement of the Thirty-Nine Articles as seen from his Deletions,” Methodist History 2:3 (April 1964): 43.

[14] White, ed., Sunday Service, 12 and 18.

[15] White, ed., Sunday Service, 146-147.

Methodist House: Courses in Wesleyan Studies

20 Thursday Nov 2014

Posted by admin in Church History, Doctrine & Theology, Means of Grace, Memphis Theological Seminary, Methodist House, Theological Education, Wesleyan Theology

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Spring 2015 Courses in Wesleyan Studies_Methodist House at MTS

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One of the ways that the Methodist House of Studies is expanding its work at MTS is through expanded course offerings in the area of Wesleyan Studies. I’m excited to be able to announce the following four courses on our Spring 2015 course schedule. (If you would like to inquire about enrolling or auditing courses at the seminary, find the contact information here.)

Here’s what we’ve got on tap for the upcoming semester:

Women in Methodist History  |  Dr. Andrew Thompson
Mondays, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Encounter the historic role of women’s leadership in Methodism. This course surveys the history of women in Methodism from the time of the late 18th century to the late 20th century. It will examine the role of women’s leadership in the Methodist and Wesleyan movement—from Mary Bosanquet Fletcher to Jarena Lee, and from Amanda Berry Smith to Mildred Bangs Wynkoop. The course focuses on themes of women’s leadership, the challenge of women responding to calls in ministry, the role of spiritual autobiography, and the contribution of women to the vitality of the Wesleyan tradition.

The Prophetic Rhetoric of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner  |  Dr. Andre Johnson
Mondays, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Engage the remarkable life, career, and prophetic rhetoric of Bishop Henry McNeal Turner (1834-1915) of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Bishop Turner was one of the most dynamic, influential, and eloquent African American church leaders of the post-Civil War period—yet today he is largely forgotten. This course highlights his historical importance and rhetorical power. By engaging in a careful reading of Turner’s writings and speeches, students in this class are able to examine the theoretical, methodical, and practical applications that make up Bishop Turner’s discourses.

American Methodism: History, Doctrine, & Polity  |  Dr. Andrew Thompson
Tuesdays, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Prepare for ordained ministry in the United Methodist Church through an immersion in the history, doctrine, and polity of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America (MEC) and its successors from the time of its founding in 1784. This course follows the ecclesiastical line that leads to the United Methodist Church at the time of its formation in 1968. It is designed to fulfill the second half of the ordination requirements for history, doctrine, and polity as outlined in the United Methodist Book of Discipline (¶324.4, ¶330.3, & ¶335).

The Means of Grace in Wesleyan Theology  |  Dr. Andrew Thompson
Wednesdays, 8:00 to 11:00 a.m.
Come and explore the theology of the means of grace in the Wesleyan tradition. As the “sacramental grammar” of Wesleyan theology, the means of grace are at the heart of the doctrine of sanctification and the practice of discipleship. This course engages both primary sources (from John and Charles Wesley) as well as secondary sources (from contemporary scholars). Half the course focuses on a study of the sacraments (i.e., Baptism and Holy Communion) and the other half considers the other means of grace in the categories of “instituted,” “prudential,” and “general.” Attention is also given to the practical implications of the means of grace for Christian ministry.

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Discipleship with a Wesleyan Accent

29 Sunday Sep 2013

Posted by admin in Charles Wesley, Doctrine & Theology, John Wesley, Leadership, United Methodist Church, Wesleyan Tradition

≈ 1 Comment

Here’s a development I’m excited about.

Early in October a new website will launch called “A Wesleyan Accent.” The purpose of the overall project represented by the Wesleyan Accent website is laid out on its Facebook page:

“A Wesleyan Accent is a web-based ministry that will launch in October, 2013 and provide free and subscription resources for Christian spiritual formation, catechesis, and discipleship in the Wesleyan way.”

The page goes on to give descriptions about the Wesleyan Accent project related to its mission and the content that it will offer:

Mission

By clearly articulating the Wesleyan understanding of Christian faith, A Wesleyan Accent seeks to strengthen Wesleyan Accentdiscipleship, empower mission and evangelism, cultivate ministry gifts of young leaders, and nurture the professional and service life of young theologians.

Description

A Wesleyan Accent is a web-based ministry providing free & subscription resources for Christian spiritual formation, catechesis, and discipleship in the Wesleyan way. Free resources include blogs, sermons, articles, book reviews, and videos from leading voices in the Wesleyan family. “Discipleship in the Wesleyan Way” (or DWW) is the subscription portion of the site. Individuals and churches can purchase annual subscriptions, which provide access to an extensive library of small group lessons on all aspects of Christian theology. Additionally, DWW supports discipleship and small group development by providing resources for both leaders and participants through its platform of customizable curriculum planning and private group portals for ongoing communication and additional resourcing.

One of the reasons the Wesleyan Accent project is exciting to me personally is that I’m going to be a part of it. My writing will be featured on the free portion of the website and will appear monthly. The potential for Wesleyan Accent seems sky-high to me. Along with the development of Ministry Matters and Seedbed, this is a sign that Wesleyan theologians and pastors are taking cyberspace seriously as a place to engage in ministry from a Wesleyan perspective at a high level. This move is crucial to the intellectual development of our tradition and the engagement of our tradition with other religious perspectives and the culture at large.

Check the Facebook page for further updates leading up to the October launch of the website. I will also notify my readers on this site of Wesleyan Accent developments, including when my own articles appear on the site.

The re-emergence of doctrine in Methodism

03 Monday Jun 2013

Posted by admin in Doctrine & Theology, Wesleyan Tradition

≈ 1 Comment

john_wesley_3The word “doctrine” means “teaching.” It lies at the heart of any serious intellectual endeavor. Any academic discipline, for instance, has a body of doctrine that students are expected to learn in order to become proficient at all in that discipline. There is also social doctrine, in a manner of speaking, that children learn as they are growing up and that teach them the unwritten rules, etiquette, and behavioral norms expected of any adult person in society. Athletes learn doctrine in their chosen sports as well, which comes in the form of both the rules of the game and the discipline required to play it well.

I mention all this because I think the idea of doctrine in Methodism may be in the process of making a real comeback. All the doctrinal settings I cited above have their analogous examples in the Christian faith. The faith does (and must have) an intellectual content in order for it to be viable in the world. Our faith also has behavioral norms, which we would see as anything from the moral instruction we receive biblically to the missional trajectory of the church herself. And disciples also must practice a form of discipline, in their study and their worship and their relational disposition toward one another.

In other words, the Christian faith requires the embrace of doctrine on a number of different levels. And all of them are vitally important.

I write about the idea of a comeback for doctrine in Methodism in my current column in the United Methodist Reporter. Since it is my final Reporter column also, I chose the topic with care. My primary academic work is essentially the historical retrieval of doctrine in Methodism. So yes, this is something about which I care quite a bit.

The reason more and more Methodists tend to be interested in the historic role of doctrine, I think, is because it has become so painfully clear that ministry in the church the way we’ve been doing it is a dead end. A part of this is the monstrous influence of individualist consumerism, which causes us to think of our faith as a product to be used as we see fit and tailor-made for each individual person.

There is a larger theological influence at play as well, though, which has been devastating to Methodism since the late 19th century. It is the framework of liberal Protestant theology, traceable from Schleiermacher and entering Methodism through the Boston personalist movement. This view privileges religious experience as the chief epistemological criterion for truth (and thus sharply diminishes the unique significance of Christ in salvation, the doctrine of the Trinity, and a whole host of other Christian essentials). The Wesleyan tradition places a great deal of value on experience, but it isn’t experience of this kind—which is one main reason why the Quadrilateral is so misunderstood.

I ramble, and some of this points me to essays for another day. But check out the column and see what you think. As always, your comments and questions are welcome.

Theology as a Means of Grace

02 Thursday May 2013

Posted by admin in Church History, Doctrine & Theology, Early Church Fathers

≈ 6 Comments

St. Augustine of Hippo

St. Augustine of Hippo

I had the pleasure this semester of reading theology with St. Augustine and with my students. I teach a seminar course on early church history. In it, we spend a couple of weeks reading through Augustine’s Confessions. It’s a remarkable book—one about which I commented on Twitter that I think it is perhaps the best thing to read on the Christian faith outside of Scripture itself. The Confessions is so theologically rich I discover something new every time I work through it.

For many laypeople, the idea of reading theology that is not Scripture probably seems foreign. Isn’t “theology” something that trained academics and pastors read? Actually, I think the Confessions is a wonderful example of how the best theology can find an audience amongst the church at large. I don’t mean that anyone can pick up a text like Confessions and read it as easily as the latest James Patterson novel. But it certainly is readable, and particularly so for a lay audience that is committed to reading together as a group and preferably under the guidance of someone (like a pastor) who has read it before.

The gifts one can receive from diving into Augustine are many and profound. The Confessions is an autobiographical work, of course, but Augustine writes it in such a way that its universal character is evident. Take, for instance, a passage I like to read with my students from Book IV. Augustine narrates the death of an unnamed friend of his in his hometown of Thagaste. This friend was so dear to him that he describes the two of them as “one soul in two bodies.” When the other young man dies, Augustine says that he was devastated. “My heart was utterly darkened by this sorrow,” he says, “And everywhere I looked I saw death.”

Augustine goes on to describe his grieving, which continues for a long time unabated. At the time of his friend’s death, he had recently been baptized. Augustine—who was not a believer at this time—did not understand the significance of his friend’s baptism; in misunderstanding his friend’s faith, he also misunderstood his friend’s death as well. As his description of grief goes on, it becomes clear that a large part of Augustine’s pain comes through the fundamental error of loving his friend as if he would last forever. His friend’s life was transient—as all our lives are—and Augustine had loved him as if he were really permanent. This misdirected love is only compounded by Augustine’s grief, which in the absence of faith in Jesus Christ has nowhere really to go. “I fretted, sighed, wept, tormented myself, and took neither rest nor counsel,” Augustine tells us, “for I was dragging around my torn and bloody soul. It was impatient of my dragging it around, and yet I could not find a place to lay it down.” His description is one of complete misery.

The Augustine of later years looks back on this episode and offers a prayer that captures how we ought rightly to love other people: “Blessed is he who loves thee,” Augustine says, “and who loves his friend in thee, and his enemy also, for thy sake; for he alone loses none dear to him, if all are dear in Him who cannot be lost.” Here Augustine begins to show how the only love which cannot end in a morass of endless grief is a love that is grounded in God. A love that ends in a mortal creature is sure to meet disaster, for the creature is bound to die. But those who die in God, and who are loved in God, are not loved in vain. Moreover, the grief that comes from the loss of such a one is not a grief that will ultimately consume us, for it is a grief that will be met by the healing grace of Jesus Christ.

As he moves the episode towards a conclusion, Augustine’s description of the power of life in Jesus Christ over the pernicious enemy of death reaches the level of the sublime. He counsels the lost sinner, “Seek what you seek; but remember that it is not where you seek it. You seek for a blessed life in the land of death. It is not there. For how can there be a blessed life where life itself is not?”

Into this death-dealing conundrum, Augustine’s response is pure gospel: “But our very Life came down to earth and bore our death, and slew it with the very abundance of his own life.” This is none other than Christ the Lord, who for our sake “ran through the world, crying out by words, deeds, death, life, descent, ascension—crying aloud to us to return to him.” Our Lamb has conquered.

And if we should be tempted to fret that we do not live during the earthly life of Jesus, Augustine says to us, “He departed from our sight that we might return to our hearts and find him there. For he left us, and behold, he is here.” For Jesus Christ is the Son of God; not a lowly prophet anointed by God, but rather God Himself. “He could not be with us long, yet he did not leave us. He went back to the place that he had never left, for ‘the world was made by him.'”

There is great comfort for Augustine that the same God who has created the world is the God into whom his friend was baptized, and the same God to whom he can now call out with the full assurance of faith. And there should be comfort in that for us, too. “In this world he was,” Augustine says, “and into this world he came, to save sinners.” Hallelujah! we might cry, with the bishop of Hippo. And we might join him, too, when he says, “To him my soul confesses, and he heals it, because it had sinned against him.”

This is theology at its finest. It is a deep and profound reflection on the gospel, made present to us through the wisdom and faith of this greatest father of the early church.

Read him and discover the reading to be a true means of grace.

 

 

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