In reading Wesley’s “Scriptural
Christianity,” it is clear that his brand of Christianity is meant to be
globally applied and communally lived. Wesley’s prescription for communal
living manifests as an economic system where all possessions are given back to the
community and divided evenly among all. Note that it is not just everyone’s excesses
that are made communal, but everything: “Neither said any of them that aught of
the things which he possessed was his own but they had all things common."
Scriptural Christianity, Wesley concludes is also more than economic
communality, but also applies to the metaphysical: “Which is the country, the
inhabitants whereof are all thus filled with the Holy Ghost? --are all of one
heart and of one soul?” Here, Wesley has mentioned the Christian ‘country’-
though he also denies its existence- which we must reconcile with his stance
that Christ was "crucified to the world, and the world crucified to him"
and that those who spread this message are "men who thus turned the world
upside down." Wesley switches back and forth between calling for a
Christian world and a Christian country multiple times, seemingly maintaining
that even with global Christianity realized, borders will still remain: “Nation
shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more […]
no country or city divided against itself.” He also appeals to authorities of
the state, calling them to lead according to scripture. My question is how Wesley,
under the unjust conditions that he himself attests to in colonization,
envisions a global Christianity that still aligns with conceptions of city,
state, and country during his time? If we are called to live with all things in
common, how does Wesley see this taking shape globally?
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