The Theology of John Wesley
Romans 5:1-12
Practical Divinity
It is early Sunday morning, May 30, 1742. The northern port city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne is hardly awake. Two strangers from London, one a slight man in his late-thirties, walk quietly down Sandgate Street in the “poorest and most contemptible part of the town.”
The two men stop at the end of the street and begin singing the 100th Psalm. A few curious people gather, and the shorter man starts preaching from Isaiah 53:5- “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our inequities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.”
The knot of listeners grows to a crowd of several hundred and then over a thousand. When the small man stops, the crowd gasps in astonishment. So the preacher announces, “If you desire to know who I am, my name is John Wesley. At five in the evening, with God’s help, I design to preach again.”
That night, Wesley finds a crowd of some 20,000 waiting. After he preached many urge him to stay longer, at least for a few days. But Wesley has to leave at 3 o’clock the next morning to keep an appointment elsewhere.
So, begins Wesley’s work in Newcastle, henceforth to be the northern part in his annual triangular tour of England. For nearly fifty years, he will make a yearly circuit from London to Bristol to Newcastle to London, preaching and teaching daily with many side trips along the way.
Wesleyan theologian Howard Snyder likes that story to the present day comparison:
“Suppose Billy Graham were to show up, alone and unannounced, with no advertising or sophisticated preparations, in Chicago’s worst ghetto and begin preaching from the sidewalk. Wesley’s appearance in Newcastle was something like that.” (The Radical Wesley, Snyder, p. 1-2)
From the time he began “field preaching” in 1739 until his death 52 years later, at the age of 88, Wesley is said to have traveled some 225,000 miles and preached more than 40,000 sermons, sometimes to crowds numbering more than 20,000. At his death, he left behind 72,000 Methodists in Great Britain and Ireland and a fledging Methodist denomination in America of some 57,000 members. According to one source, Wesley was the “ascendant personality” of his age, more widely known in Britain than any other Englishman of the time. (The Radical Wesley, Snyder, p. 3)
In 1968, when the Methodist Church merged with the Evangelical Brethren, there were over 11 million members in the denomination, making it one of the largest Protestant denominations in the world. Today, there are over 75 million of United Methodists in 103 different denominations in 130 different countries. While recent years have seen a decline in membership in Europe and America, United Methodism is rapidly growing in Asia and Africa.
The book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church defines our distinctive heritage as United Methodists as follows:
“The underlying energy of the Wesleyan theological heritage stems from an emphasis upon practical divinity, the implementation of genuine Christianity in the lives of believers.”
Methodism did not arise in response to a specific doctrinal dispute, though there was no lack of theological controversy. Early Methodists claimed to preach the scriptural disciplines of the Church of England as contained in the Articles of Religion, the Homilies, and the Book of Common Prayer.
Their task was not to reformulate doctrine. Their tasks were to summon people to experience the justifying and sanctifying grace of God and encourage people to grow in the knowledge and love of God through the personal and corporate disciplines of the Christian life.
Wesley’s orientation toward the practical is evident in his focus upon the “scripture way of salvation.” He considered doctrinal matters primarily in terms of their significance for Christian discipleship.
The Wesleyan emphasis upon the Christian life- faith and love put into practice- has been the hallmark of those traditions now incorporated into the United Methodist Church. The distinctive shape of the Wesleyan theological heritage can be seen in a constellation of doctrinal emphases that display the creating, redeeming, and sanctifying activity of God.
“Practical divinity…the implementation of genuine Christianity into the life of the believer…to put faith and love into practice…”
Unless I am mistaken, our culture praises practicality as a virtue. To be “practical” means, among other things, to be sensible, judicious, functional, useful, constructive…not living in the theoretical or the ideal…Practical living, one might say is where the rubber meets the road….
John Wesley’s life is a story of how one can take the precepts of the Bible and “daily” (or more often than that) live them out for the attaining of Christian perfection and the spreading of the Gospel.
It is in fact this Wesleyan bent to “practical divinity” whereby we get the name “Methodists” today.
John Wesley, born in Epworth, England in 1703, was the 15th child born to Samuel and Susannah Wesley. Samuel was the rector in the Anglican church and Susannah was a woman of great wisdom, piety and intellect. It is said that it was Susannah who was responsible for the establishment and nurture of her nineteen children in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
As a young man, Wesley and his brother Charles were students at Oxford University. It is here that “Methodism” was truly born, It seems that John, Charles and two others began to spend a good deal of their time together reading chiefly, the Greek Testament. To these four, others were gradually added.
And, they became the talk of the Oxford campus. Their habits and discipline of study led to their being the brunt of campus joking. Some called them, “the Holy Club.” Others called them the “Bible Moths.” It is said that it was young man from Christ Church who said, “Here is a new set of Methodists…” The phrase “Methodist” was a term that referred to some ancient “methodical” physicians. The name was new and quaint; so it took immediately, and the Methodists were known all over the University.
The name “Methodist” became a name of which Wesley was proud. On May 22, 1777, Wesley attempted to describe his movement:
“You will naturally ask, ‘“’What is Methodism? What does this new word mean? Is it not a new religion?…Nothing can be more remote from the truth… Methodism, so called, is the old religion of the Bible, the religion of the Primitive Church, the religion of the Church of England. This old religion…is none other than love, the love of God and all mankind.’”
Wesley saw Methodism as a renewed expression of Christian faith.
The Wesleyan “methodology” was marked in four ways:
First, there is the primacy of scripture.
Wesley held that the primacy of scripture is of utmost import in the life of the Christian. This started for Wesley at the earliest in the development of his character. The zealous nature of those young men was committed to the Church of England and all of her doctrines…however, these could be upheld only so far as they were consistent with the Holy Scriptures…everything, they believed, “was bound upon them by their one book, the Bible; it being their one desire and design to be downright Bible Christians; taking the Bible, as interpreted by the primitive Church and our own, for their whole and sole rule.”
In reading Wesley’s sermons, one is quick to note that they are primarily a string of biblical quotations. Wesley, himself, asserted, “I allow no other rule, whether of faith or practice, than the Holy Scriptures…” And, “My ground is the Bible…I follow it in all things great and small…”
Second, the Christian tradition also played a critical role in theological understanding. Using the Bible as his source, Wesley looked back to the traditions of the church he inherited. And, through a wideness of his reading, Wesley helped the people called Methodist to form new traditions. For example, Wesley held that communion was to be served every time the Body of Christ was gathered. Thus was a radical concept for the Church of England but, the scriptural “Do this is remembrance of me…” meant for Wesley every time that you gather…“Do this is remembrance of me…”
Because of Wesley’s regard for tradition as a “tie to the past…and, a point to the future,” what began with Wesley…is still evolving and changing…and, is a living, vital expression of the Christian faith.
Wesley, also held, that theology should make sense. Therefore a third part of Wesley’s theological quadrilateral is reason. By reason, we can read and interpret the scripture…reason helps us to determine clarity about what we believe and why we believe it…by reason, we ask questions of faith and seek to understand God’s action and will.
The last test is experience. This is the weakest part of the Wesleyan methodology. Experience is important because it shows what God is doing in the life of the believer. While this is true, experience falls a little short because it is so…well, human…therefore, closely tied to the believers journey is the constant need for God’s forgiveness and empowering grace.”
Wesley described the overall journey of the Christian as a path to perfection dependent ultimately upon God’s grace…with the Holy Scripture as the primary guide along the path. While one could not achieve perfection in this life, we will talk more about this is this series, one journey was marked by a deeper, clearer, commitment to Christ to be lived out is one’s daily walk…this is Wesley’s understanding of “practical divinity…”
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