Methodism’s Theological Gift

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Given the monumental problems of the modern world, why should Methodists get energized about theology? In my experience, for laypeople—and even many clergy—theology is an interesting but secondary or tertiary concern that sends shivers of dread down their spines. They immediately envision high-flown, ethereal language making arcane distinctions about doctrinal minutiae, far removed from the immediate concerns of people’s lives, and perhaps even counterproductive to the desire to experience God. Add to these suspicions trepidations about fostering regrettable divisions between Christians of different traditions, and you have a recipe for distrust in theological rigor. The average church member probably sees concentration on doctrinal reflection as a distracting detriment to Christian fellowship. Born in pietistic revivalism, Methodism has often emphasized the “experience” of faith over theological contemplation. Renewal of spiritual passion for God is what scores of people think is most needed and essential. They say, “Christianity is not ‘religion’; it is a relationship with God.” Whereas Thomas Jefferson famously opined, “ethics unite, but doctrine divides,” an evangelical Methodist might paraphrase him, “spiritual experience unites, but doctrine divides.” While such a commitment to the centrality of experiencing God personally is correct, one must ask what it means to experience God, have a saving relationship with God, and love God. This essay looks to Methodism’s primogenitor, demonstrating that theological reflection is inescapably necessary for our calling in Christ for two related and profoundly spiritual reasons.

In his oft-cited sermon "The Catholic Spirit," John Wesley offers a (much-misunderstood) credo for Christian life: "Is thy heart right as my heart is with thy heart? If so, then give me thine hand." Rightly understood, this exhortation reveals why we who call the Methodist tradition home need to be involved in theological reflection and dialogue with others. "The Catholic Spirit" is built upon the conviction that there is a center of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that all true believers inhabit, which must be our all-encompassing frame of reference. About this center of our faith, which C. S. Lewis would later call "Mere Christianity," Wesley pleaded and contended with Christians (Methodist and otherwise) to explore its meaning and implications together in Christian conferencing (a means of grace), exhort one another in accountable fellowship to believe it fully, continually contemplate it (never assume you have grasped it fully), and live in it together, wholeheartedly. His exhortation not only denounces doctrinal laxity, but warns about purely individual, privatized spiritual experience, even if a dash of ecumenical sentimentality is added for good measure.

Writing in thoroughly Christianized 18th-century England, where differing theological interpretations swarmed even among those of Christian orthodox faith, non-orthodox beliefs abounded. Deism, the revival of Arianism, Unitarianism, and Socinianism (which rejected not only the Trinity but also Christ’s divinity and the need for Christ’s Atonement), as well as various versions of Enthusiasm and Antinomianism, all promoted false theologies. Yet, Wesley’s personal response was not to avoid doctrinal debates over theological dogmas with orthodox believers, much less soften the unique and exclusive claims and inconvenient propositions of the Gospel for the sake of bridging religious crevasses with the heretical. Rather, his commitment was to consensual and creedal Christian doctrine that predated the Reformation, but not for the sake of clear intellectual belief. His devotion was to God in Christ, and he knew that no adequate, saving knowledge of the God he loved and worshipped was possible apart from those doctrines and the Holy Scriptures from which they developed. 

In this, we discover the first reason those who embrace and confess a robust, full-orbed Methodist theological perspective should join the fray of intellectual and theological discourse today: theology and doctrine matter because God’s self-revelation matters. As noted above, one of the chief mantras of our age is that religious dogmas are encumbering to authentic personal spiritual vitality. However, there are two questions one must ask: 1) What is “spirituality,” and 2) what makes one’s spirituality “authentic”? A rather ill-defined term, spirituality could describe L. Ron Hubbard or Pope Leo XIV. It is, therefore, even more difficult to come to terms with what it might mean to be “authentic” spiritually. Surely it would have to mean more than being sincere in one’s beliefs. Otherwise, we could say that every terrorist, when he decapitates an innocent or bombs a wedding celebration, is acting by authentic spirituality, as is the religious pluralist who believes all conceptions of God are equally valid. If being spiritual cannot avoid the traps of moral and theological relativism, then the concept is rather useless.

Perhaps this conundrum results from a serious misconception. Spirituality is always a result, not a starting point. Spirituality is always downstream from a belief system, and belief systems can and should be compared and discussed. What one believes about God truly matters. This is why the claim that religious dogmas get in the way of real spirituality is such a naïve belief. Since the Triune One has revealed himself to us in Jesus, affirming and yielding to doctrines reflecting this are essential for an authentic spiritual life. Thus, Wesley denounces “speculative latitudinarianism” (theological relativism). He reminds us that we cannot know and love God properly apart from proper belief about God. A catholic spirit is not:

“. . . indifference to all [beliefs]: this is the spawn of hell, not the offspring of heaven. This unsettledness of thought, this being driven to and fro, and tossed about with every wind of doctrine, is a great curse, not a blessing; an irreconcilable enemy, not a friend to true catholicism. A man of a truly catholic spirit has not now his religion to seek. He is fixed as the sun in his judgment concerning the main branches of Christian doctrine. It is true, he is always ready to hear and weigh whatsoever can be offered against his own principles; but as this does not show any wavering in his own mind, neither does it occasion any.”

Wesley knew what we would all do well to remember: that an open, welcoming heart toward others and an open mind to engage with beliefs other than one’s own require granite-like certitude in essential theological dogmas. A loving spiritual character requires a well-developed sense of spiritual identity, which only comes from continual self-reflection and discernment of what the self-revelation of the author of our being means for us. Proper Christian doctrine tells us who God is and who we are. Without it, we will be shaped “spiritually” by the next religious fad, charismatic celebrity, or most pressing cultural values of the moment (“being driven to and fro”). Reinhold Niebuhr warned liberal Protestantism of the mid-20th century that absent the guiding principles of true theology in the transcendent God made flesh in Christ, we will fall prey to various idolatries—personal, communal, and national—effectively damning ourselves to our own finitude. To be fully transformed by the Spirit through the message of the Gospel requires contemplation of God’s self-identifying works in Christ and humble, continual, and intentional reflection on the depth of their implications—a lifetime’s work. Far from a hindrance to vital spiritual life, diligent and communally shared theological reflection on orthodox faith enriches the spiritual journey into God’s life. As a safety harness that holds us in the ark of God’s salvation and presence and not shackles that bind us, such theological centering in faith enables welcoming openness to others without doctrinal or moral compromise.

A second reason that we need to engage in theological reflection and articulation for our age is related to the first. Wesley was always self-consciously Christian in the historical, conciliar sense. His Methodism was a means, not an end. When he insisted that Methodist theology and spirituality were only that of the ancient church in the “purest of ages,” he did not mean just New Testament times but the patristic era as well. Scriptural holiness was not a new Methodist doctrine, but the patristic legacy bequeathed to us: “It is clearly expressed. . . in Clemens Romanus, Ignatius, and Polycarp; . . . in the writings of Tertullian, Origen, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Cyprian; . . . found in the works of Chrysostom, Basil, Ephrem Syrus, and Macarius.”  Knowing that our aim is no more to defend or promote Wesley or Methodism than his goal was to promote himself or his movement, we will offer and endorse our theological vision, persuaded that it reflects something deeply important, found in ancient orthodox faith, that modern churches need. In this task, commitment to the foundational authority of Scripture’s revelation is of primary importance, but we cannot stop with our own reading of the Bible. Nor can we just look to Wesley’s theology. We must look through Wesley to ancient, consensual Christian belief as he did. Thus, we will be Methodists in the fullest sense as we seek to serve the Church catholic by learning from the Fathers as guides to Holy Writ. We can humbly call Christians into deeper union with their Lord and one another. Not just professional theologians, but clergy and laity must (as we are able) seek and enter contemplative, prayerful conversation about the true core of the Christian Gospel with any of Jesus’s children who will join us.

That is the essence of a catholic spirit, highlighted for us in Wesley’s refrain, “If your heart is right, as my heart is with thy heart, then give me thine hand.” The term “heart” means much more than the seat of one’s affections and emotional sentiments in this sermon. His emphasis on the heart is in line with the biblical concept, where "heart" names the very core of one’s existence and identity. Thus, the heart is always the fundamental issue, which is why he insists in this sermon that our hearts can be right with others only if our hearts are “right with God.” After such a proclamation in the sermon, he then lists the theological beliefs necessary for this. His point: only a heart (center of our being) formed in union with a searching, discerning mind yielded to God’s self-revelation can be filled with God’s presence, thereby living rightly with and before God and generously open to others. Without this, “you are nearer the spirit of Antichrist,” he declares. To truly love others on their spiritual journeys, we must love God rightly, starting with our beliefs about God. Correct belief is not for doctrinal scrupulosity but for a transformed, Christ-shaped life at the center of our identity. Only then will we be able “to serve the present age,” as Charles Wesley poetically exhorted us. This is perfect love—scriptural holiness.

Faithful Wesleyan theology, therefore, is not a discipline that simply engages in reasoning and study for mere intellectual clarity, but our spiritual way of life in Christ. Clarity with conviction about our theology is necessary for an open, inviting character toward those who might interpret texts differently. This spirit is what the Holy Spirit produces in us through doctrinal confidence, making true Christian fellowship possible. As we then hold open the invitation to all for a fellowship of theological contemplation of God’s truth in Christ, this includes our patristic forebears of the earliest centuries. When our faith grows in the ancient soil of consensual theological insight about God’s self-revealing actions found in Scripture and is nourished by shared ongoing reflection about the mystery revealed, it deepens our souls and naturally leads to enriching true relationships with other Christians. Such an orientation is much needed in our evangelical church culture that often minimizes, or even neglects, doctrinal theology as part of spiritual life. Knowing that theology is not a mere listing of doctrines but a Christ-centered way of living out the mystery of God in the Spirit, we in the Wesleyan tradition will relearn how to theologize biblically in conversation with the patristic legacy we neglected for a long time. Then we can confidently, as humble Methodists, take our place in the theological fray for the glory of the Trinity and the sake of Christ’s body.

G. Stephen Blakemore is Professor of Christian Thought at Wesley Biblical Seminary in Ridgeland, MS.