Thursday, July 10, 2008

Wesley's Ecclesiology

Wesley, believe it or not, has a sermon titled Of the Church. Its sermon #74 (I've been reading past the standard 52 lately). He makes some rather startling claims. The intro by Outler is probably the most succinct statement on Wesley's ecclesiology:

"The essence of the church for Wesley, need not be sought in it visible institutions, not even some invisible numerous electorum. The church as Body of Chris i the company of all true believers, 'holy' because its members are themselves holy. This is, therefore, an unstable blend of Anglican and Anabaptist ecclesiologies; it is also one of Wesley's more daring syntheses. Its outworks in the subsequent histories of Methodism and Anglican ecclesiology have yet to be probed as deeply as they deserve, which is also to say that its ecumenical significance has yet to be fully appreciated."

You can find his sermon here.

So let's probe it. What do you think? In some of these later sermons I am finding Wesley to totter on the edge of Pelagianism. The emphasis here on the true church being those who are "holy" and thus visibly so, makes me naturally wonder whether I am "holy" and thus, whether I am part of the church. But at the same time I like the "daring synthesis" of trying to combine the invisible and visible church together.

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