THE THEOLOGY OF JOHN WESLEY
Tyndale Seminary
Winter 2004
Instructor: Reverend Victor Shepherd
416 226 6380 (ext. 6726)
Tuesdays at 8:30 a.m.
Office Hours as posted
e-mail: vshep@tyndale.ca or victor.shepherd@sympatico.ca
Prerequisite: successful completion of THEO 053 and 0532 or Theo 0530.
Course
Description:
This
course examines major aspects of Wesley's theology as expounded chiefly in his Sermons
on Several Occasions. Theological,
ecclesiastical, social and intellectual environments will be probed, as well as
developments in post-Wesley Wesleyanism. Attention
will be given to the nuances of the denominations represented by those enrolled
in the course
Course Objectives:
[1] to acquaint students with representative material from Wesley himself;
[2] to have students appreciate the multiform context (social, intellectual,
religious and theological) in which Wesley wrote theology;
[3] to have students understand how theology, for Wesley, was always
"practical divinity"; i.e., how it subserved the proclamation and
exemplification of the Kingdom of God rather than subserving speculative
concerns;
[4] to have students locate Wesley in the tradition of the church catholic;
[5] to have Wesley contribute to the students' theological formation.
Text: Outler and Heitzenrater (eds.), John Wesley's Sermons: An
Anthology
(Numbers opposite readings refer to pages in the text.)
Course Requirements:
(1)Examination
(2)Essay (3000 words approximately, due July 12.) The essay is to be
written in conformity with any accepted style manual.
(Essay and Examination are weighted equally.)
Weekly Classes (numbers opposite readings refer
to pages in the text.)
Jan. 20
Discussion of bibliography
Overview of Wesley's Life and Work
Wesleyan "Quadrilateral"
Jan. 27
(Quadrilateral, continued)
V. Shepherd, "Catholic Spirit"
Feb. 3
"The Image of God" 13
"The Circumcision of the Heart" 23
"The One Thing Needful" 33 (Before 1738)
Feb. 10
"Salvation By Faith" 39
"Free Grace" 49
"The Almost Christian" 61 (After 1738)
Feb. 17
"Awake, Thou That Sleepest" 85
"Scriptural Christianity" 97
"Justification by Faith" 111
Feb. 24
"The Spirit of Bondage and of Adoption" 133
"The Witness of the Spirit (I)" 145
"The Witness of the Spirit (II)" 393
March 2
"The New Birth" 335
"The Marks of the New Birth" 173
"The Great Privilege of Those That Are Born of God" 183
March 9
"The Original, Nature, Properties, and Use of the Law" 255
"The Law Established Through Faith, I" 267
"The Law Established Through Faith, II" 277
March 16
No Class Reading Week
March 23
"The Means of Grace" 157
"The Duty of Constant Communion" 501
March 30
"The Use of Money" 347
"The Good Steward" 419
"The Danger of Riches" 45
April 6
"On Sin in Believers" 359
"The Repentance of Believers" 405
April 13
"Christian Perfection" 69
"Can You Conceive Anything More Amiable Than This?"
Anything More Desirable?"
A Note on Wesley's Challenge Concerning Christian Perfection
(Paper by V. Shepherd)
April 20
"Upon our Lord's Sermon on
the Mount, V" 207
"Upon our Lord's Sermon on the
Mount, VIII" 239
April 27
Examination
Essay Topics
1] The Social Background of the 18th Century Revival
2] The Political Background............................
3] The Religious or Theological or Ecclesiastical Background...
4] The Puritans and Wesley: Convergence and Divergence
5] Wesley's Theological Debt to the Church of England
6] Wesley and Whitefield on Predestination
7] Wesley and Whitefield on the New Birth
8] Wesley's Understanding of Sanctification (Perfection)
9] Theological Differences between John and Charles Wesley
10] Wesley and the Church Fathers (Patristics)
11] Wesley's Understanding of Prevenient Grace
12] Wesley on Faith or Justification or Repentance or Assurance
13] An Aspect of Charles Wesley's Hymnody
14] Wesley's Disputes with the Calvinists
15] Wesley's Spiritual Pilgrimage: From Mysticism and Moralism to Saving
Faith (Aldersgate)
16] Wesley's Horror at Material Prosperity
17] An Overview of and Comment on "And Earnest Appeal to Men of
Reason and Religion" (1743)
18] Wesley's Understanding of Holy Communion
19] Wesley's Soteriology
20] Wesley and Calvin on the Law of God
21] Wesley's Ecclesiology
22] The Wesley Brothers' Understanding of the Lord's Supper from an
examination of Hymns on the Lord's Supper or J.E. Rattenbury's The
Eucharistic Hymns of John and Charles Wesley.
(Any topic approved by Professor Shepherd)
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baker, F.; Charles Wesley's Verse
"
From Wesley to Asbury
"
John Wesley and the Church of England
Borgen, O; John
Wesley on the Sacraments
Bready, J.;
England
Before and After Wesley
Brown-Lawson, A.; John Wesley and the Evangelicals of
the
Eighteenth Century
Campbell, T.; John Wesley and Christian Antiquity
Campbell,
T.; Gunter, S,; Jones, S,; Madddox, R,; Miles, R,;
Wesley
and the Quadrilateral
Clifford, A.C.; Atonement
and Justification
(Wesley and the Puritans compared with the Ref.)
Collins, K.; A Real Christian: The Life of John Wesley
A Faithful Witness: John Wesley's Homiletical Theology
"
The
Scripture Way
of Salvation
"
John Wesley: A Theological Journey
Coppedge, A.; John Wesley in Theological Debate
Dallimore, A.; A Heart Set Free: The Life of Charles
Wesley
"
Susanna Wesley
Davies, R.; Methodism
Davies,
R., George, R. and Rupp, G., eds.; A History of the
Methodist
Church
in
Great Britain
(4 vols.)
Deschner, J.; Wesley's
Christology
Green, J.B.; John Wesley and William Law
Gunter, Scott, Gunter, W.;
The Limits of "Love Divine"
Harper, S.; John
Wesley's Message for Today
Heitzenrater, R.; Mirror
and Memory: Reflections on Early Methodism,
The Elusive Mr. Wesley (2 vols.),
"
Wesley and the People Called Methodists
Hildebrandt, F.; Christianity
According to the Wesleys
Jennings
, T.W.; Good News to the
Poor: John Wesley's
Evangelical
Economics
Jones, S.; John
Wesley's Conception and Use of Scripture
Kimbrough, S.; Charles
Wesley: Poet and Theologian
Langford,
T.; Practical Divinity
Lindstrom, H.; Wesley
and Sanctification
Maddox, R.; Responsible
Grace
****
"(ed.);
Aldersgate Reconsidered
"(ed.); Rethinking Wesley's Theology For
Contemporary
Methodism
Marquardt, M.; John Wesley's Social Ethics
Newton
, J.;
Susanna Wesley and the Puritan Tradition in Methodism
"
John Wesley: His Puritan Heritage
Oden, T.; Doctrinal
Standards in the Wesleyan Tradition
"
John Wesley's Scriptural Christianity
****
(Note
the references at end of each chapter.)
Oden, T. and Longden, L, eds.;
The Wesleyan Theological
Heritage: Essays of Albert Outler
Peters, J.; Christian
Perfection and American Methodism
Pollock, J.; George
Whitefield
"
John Wesley
Rack, H.; Reasonable
Enthusiast
****
Rowe, K., ed.; The Place of
Wesley in the Christian Tradition
Rudolph, L.; Francis
Asbury
Runyon, T.; The New Creation: John Wesley's Theology
Today
Rupp, E.G.; Religion in
England
, 1688-1791
Ryle, L.; Select
Sermons of George Whitefield
Sangster, W.; The
Path to Perfection
Smith, T.; Whitefield
and Wesley on the New Birth
Snyder, H.; The
Radical Wesley
Stacey, J., ed.; John
Wesley in Contemporary Perspectives
Tabraham, Barrie W.; The Making of Methodism
Tuttle, R.; John
Wesley: His Life and Theology
"
Mysticism in the Wesleyan Tradition
Tyson, J.; Charles
Wesley on Sanctification
Wainwright, G.,; Geoffrey
Wainwright on Wesley and Calvin
Watson, D.L.; The
Early Methodist Class Meeting
Watson, P.; The Message of the Wesleys
Williams, C.; John
Wesley's Theology Today
Wiseman, P., ed,; John
Fletcher's Checks to Antinomianism
