In 1740 John Wesley preached against the concept of predestination and its usurpation of God's ability to be both loving and sovereign, saying that anyone arguing for predestination is not only making God cruel but the whole exercise of preaching and reaching out to others a vain act. ("[D]irectly does this doctrine tend to destroy several branches of holiness...This doctrine tends to destroy the comfort of religion, the happiness of Christianity." "Free Grace," para. 12, 13) This stakes a firm theological claim.
However, two years later Wesley published a pamphlet insisting that those called Methodists may hold whatever theology is right to them provided they remain separate from the "Jews, Turks...Infidels...[and the] Romish Church" ("The Character of a Methodist, para. 1). Does this lack of emphasis on predestination (and other finer theological points) represent an opening such that those who adhere to a belief in predetermination might count themselves Methodist despite Wesley's statements against that? Is the recognition that the pamphlet is addressing a movement rather than the crowd of the sermon occasion for fewer restrictions on the parameters of belief? Comparing the two documents, I am curious whether the pressure of organization was in some sense chasing out or watering down the earlier theology, insofar as we can understand the surroundings and motivations of the pair.
No comments:
Post a Comment