Wesley on Moral Character
Discussions of moral character in our day tend to break down whenever it is suggested that there is a character that is normative for all people, or even for all Christians. Whoever dares to make such a suggestion is seen as imposing his or her view of morality on everyone else. But Wesley had a clear sense, based on scripture, of the moral character God wishes us to have.
Wesley and the Doctrinal Role of Hymnody
The hymnal was analogous to Wesley’s standard sermons or the Minutes of Several Conversations. It set forth in an organized fashion the theology of the movement. As such, this hymnal dealt with the full range of the Christian life, from prevenient grace to Christian perfection.
Wesley: “Our Doctrine and Our Discipline”
“Our doctrine and our discipline” was a phrase common to early Methodists, including John Wesley and Francis Asbury. Both terms were crucial to the new movement, but they had significantly different connotations then than they do for many today.
Christian Perfection
By Henry “Hal” Knight III Christian perfection, or entire sanctification, may be the most controversial of Wesley’s teachings. It was certainly one of the most misunderstood, which is why Wesley took such great pains to define it. Christian perfection, he said, is “purity of intention, dedicating all the life to God” and “the mind which […]
The Marks of Conversion
By Henry “Hal” Knight III “Conversion” is a tricky word. Everyone seems to know what it means, but the meanings are widely divergent. They are often quite different from how John Wesley understood the term. Wesley himself used the word infrequently, because he believed it was not a common scriptural term. It may be that […]
The Significance of the Law for Wesley
By Henry “Hal” Knight III For Wesley, prevenient grace is a manifestation of God’s universal love for humanity. God reaches out to everyone, restoring a measure of the freedom which sin has taken away, enabling persons to turn back to God. The uneasy conscience is itself a call to respond to God; and to obey […]
Original Sin
By Henry “Hal” Knight III Wesley’s doctrine of prevenient grace was his solution to a problem inherent in two central teachings of Protestantism. The first was original sin, which in Wesley’s day was under attack by influential advocates of human free will such as John Taylor. The longest single essay written by Wesley was a […]
John Wesley’s “Orthopathy” – The “Right” Way?
By Henry “Hal” Knight III When in the 1970s Wesleyan and Pentecostal theologians introduced the term “orthopathy,” they had more in mind than simply insisting experience should be considered along with belief (orthodoxy) and practice (orthopraxis) in the doing of theology. They were suggesting that there is a “right” experience of God, just as there […]
John Wesley’s “Orthopraxis”
By Henry “Hal” Knight III The term “orthopraxis” was introduced into Christian theology by liberation theologians in the 1960s. It was meant as a corrective to an orthodoxy that affirmed all the right things about God and yet was complacent about (or worse, complicit in) systemic injustice and oppression. “Praxis” denotes a way of relating […]
Wesley’s “Orthodoxy”
By Henry “Hal” Knight III “Orthodoxy” is not a popular word these days. When someone announces they no longer believe in the Trinity or the deity of Christ, many consider it “fundamentalist” to suggest these beliefs are incompatible with Christianity. Those who do so are pictured as self-appointed doctrinal enforcers who seek to impose their […]