Theology is always in motion, ever evolving. In this post, I am thinking of this with respect to John Wesley.
Today (May 24th) is the date in 1738 when John Wesley wrote that his heart was “strangely warmed” while hearing someone read from Luther’s ‘Preface to the Epistle to the Romans.’ In these words, we find an illustration of his evolution, one born of a faith struggle which he had been experiencing for years. Like any evolution, it gave him a new place to stand in the articulation and expression of his already-existing faith. [1]
But it was not the only way that his faith and theology evolved. I have observed it in these ways: an early shift in his belief about assurance, changes in his view regarding women in ministry, development of a pneumatology (especially as regards the gifts and fruit of the Spirit), new thoughts about the nature and validity of religions other than Christianity, and alterations in his theology of salvation. I would also note an evolving theology of justice, particularly as it came to be expressed in his denouncement of slavery. [2]
I am sure there are other ways to illustrate John Wesley’s evolutionary theology, and I am engaging in a conversation with friends about this. What we discover may lead me to write more about this in the future.
In noting John Wesley’s evolving faith, it is essential to point out that his changes were by no means in relation to small matters. Each of the ways in which I have cited his evolution included new views of Scripture, tradition, and reason. Every evolution put him at odds with other Christians, sometimes to the extent that he was forbidden to minister in certain places, and relegated to a “suspect” status. But his new views were movements into a fullness of faith he could not deny or abandon. He never viewed the status quo, in the society or church, as the final word.
So, what I see in John Wesley is what must be seen in any Christian who sets out to follow Jesus: an evolving faith, an abundant living (rooted in a theology of love) that grows in both depth…and breadth. Wesley’s admonition to “go on to perfection” (unending maturation in love) is the summation of evolutionary theology—a faith development which is marked by expansiveness and ecumenism—a theology which “draws the circle wider.” [3] An increasingly generous orthodoxy. It is no error to say that at the end of his life, John Wesley was a “larger” Christian than he had ever been, and that his faith-of-a-son never allowed him to say what the foolish farmer said in Luke 12:19, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, and be merry.” For him, and for any Christian, evolutionary faith is the inevitable result of realizing we are related to an infinite God and following the eternal, universal Christ. [4]
Writing about this on Wesley’s Aldersgate Day anniversary is no abstract posting. We are living in a day when evolutionary faith is not only suspect, it is caricatured by some as unorthodox, even heretical. This false charge comes from those who, as in Wesley’s day, view theology as a snapshot rather than a video tape—as something fixed rather than something fluid. When theology is frozen in time, any evolution is labeled as a departure from the “true faith” caught in its time-bound photograph. But as Wesley pointed out emphatically in a letter to Thomas Maxfield (November 2, 1762), a snapshot theology is not Christian perfection, but rather human perfectionism that arises from egotism and becomes manifest in ethnocentrism. The loss of evolutionary theology, he wrote, feeds the lust for power and control, fosters divisiveness, and does great harm.
But when we look at theology through the experience of John Wesley himself (and Charles too, as well as the Methodist movement they began), we see something radically different. We see a healthy faith at work—one that he found in one of his favorite verses, 2 Corinthians 5:17. The way things work in God’s new creation is this: faith moves, it evolves, with the old passing away so that the new may come. This is not departure; it is development. It is not the loss of faith; it is the maturation of it—what John Wesley called “living faith” as opposed to “dead orthodoxy.” His witness to evolving faith, seen in his Aldersgate experience, is one for us to celebrate and incarnate in our day.
[1] I do not believe his Aldersgate experience was John Wesley’s conversion, and I take my cue from his own words. He said in his sermon “On Faith” that at Aldersgate he moved into the “faith of a son,” but that before then he had the “faith of a servant” which he noted was adequate for salvation. Aldersgate was important for John Wesley, but only an early step in a journey which continued for fifty three more years.
[2] I have recently been told of Irv Bredlinger’s book, ‘Social Justice Through the Eyes of John Wesley,’ which focuses on his denouncement of slavery, but in the larger context of his theology of sanctification.
[3] James Fowler’s article, “John Wesley’s Development in Faith” gave me an early look into the evolutionary nature of his formation—a look that I have paid more attention to in recent years.
[4] Thomas Oord, himself a Wesley scholar, is doing us a great service as he develops what he calls “Open and Relational Theology.” He follows in the steps of persons like Albert Outler, Georgia Harkness, Ted Runyan, Randy Maddox, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Luther Smith—to name a very few.
Oboedire 