TJieodore W. Jennings, Jr. The Meaning of ... - Quarterly Review

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transform all of life, and all that lacked was time to practice the love now poured out. Wesley's optimism about the immediate effects of assurance or faith or the witness of the spirit or regeneration or justification (at first these were all confused in Wesley's mind) was assaulted not only by his own experience but by the testimony of experienced Christians (including some of the Moravians) and by the analysis of the lives of new Methodists. It became clear that most did not find entire holiness at the point of initial transformation, 13 Over the course of several decades Wesley developed a new view of the means by which we become holy. Wesley returned to his idea of the disciplined life, which had earlier characterized the Methodists. But this disciplined life was now more clearly grounded on the grace of God. Since grace was the foundation, holiness was a possibility for all. The dominant metaphor for the process of becoming holy was growth toward maturity. This growth always has its basis in divine grace, but it requires our cooperation as well. That is Wesley's Arminianism. Wesley's mature view of what we might call conversion was that it was a means to this end. God gave us this infusion of grace so that we might become truly holy, so that we might manifest in all aspects of our lives the love of God and neighbor. Unlike the "gospel preachers" of his day, Wesley never viewed conversion as an end. 14 Faith in Christ was merely the means to that end (and moreover not an indispensable means). 15 Even the doctrine of assurance came to be regarded as a dispensable means to that end. 16 This helps explain why Wesley constantly discounted the enthusiasm of early converts. Time and again in his Journal he notes that many claimed to have been justified or regenerated, then remarks, "But how many of these flowers will fade?" He was interested in "converts" only insofar as they really began and continued on the road to the holiness. Wesley always subjected claims of religious experience and of conversion to one rigorous test: does it produce holiness? Does it lead to a life which embodies love for all humanity and especially for the least of these? Does it bring an end to enmity and division? Does it bring peace and humility? Does it produce sacrificial solidarity with the poor? Only if it does can it really be termed a conversion. 8 QUARTERLY REVIEW / SPRING 1993
It must also be said that what we call church membership was also for Wesley a means and not an end. Simply becoming a Methodist, accepting the disciplines of that community, could in no way substitute for holiness. The essential thing was that all be called to holiness and that the people called Methodists offer concrete help along the way. Wesley formed the societies in order "to conserve the fruits of the revival." Attendance upon public and private prayer, the private and public service of the word and constant communion were for Wesley not signs of holiness but means thereto. 17 In these regular avenues the Spirit operates upon us, filling us with the love that enables us to grow in grace and in holiness. Put in familiar terms then, for Wesley the goal was discipleship (holiness). This discipleship was to be understood in terms of the love of God and neighbor transforming every sphere of life. What we call conversion is a means to this end. It is die commitment to discipleship made possible by the awareness of the divine love permeating to the roots of our being. But where such love does not become effectual, the "conversion" is utterly wasted, and the person becomes more the child of hell than ever before. Growth in holiness, however, occurs by participating in the means of grace. The Methodist societies intend to make these means of grace more generally available, especially to the poor and the disaffected. Methodism has always been tempted to confuse the means with the ends. For some the temptation is to substitute the ecclesiastical means (institutional commitment) for holiness. For Evangelicals the temptation has been to substitute conversion for holiness. For others, a rigorous focus upon moral ism divorced from love has deflected attention from the true aim of holiness; the love of God and neighbor. Wesley's contribution, so often obscured in the past but still critical for the life of Christendom, is to clarify the way to actualize scriptural holiness in the world. Discipleship in the New Testament Wesley insisted that his own theological conclusions be tested in reference to the Scripture. I want to explore the meaning of discipleship in the New Testament in order to see what areas of congruence we may find between Wesley's views concerning holiness and the Gospels' views concerning discipleship. THE MEANING OF DISCIPLESHIP 9
Page 1 and 2: Quarterly Review/Spring 1993 55.00
Page 3 and 4: Quarterly Review A Journal of Theol
Page 5: VOL. 13, NO. 1 SPRING 1993 Contents
Page 8 and 9: I have always rather liked the gruf
Page 10 and 11: of discipleship in the New Testamen
Page 12 and 13: imagine a week without visiting the
Page 16 and 17: Contemporary North American Christi
Page 18 and 19: We must now see what it is that cha
Page 20 and 21: saying "call no one your father in
Page 22 and 23: 13:12). There is no following of Je
Page 24 and 25: Both New Testament discipleship and
Page 26 and 27: 17. "The Duty of Constant Communion
Page 28 and 29: earliest Christian congregations be
Page 30 and 31: his baptism to the experience of Ch
Page 32 and 33: Holy Spirit comes down willingly fr
Page 34 and 35: The Sacramental Nature of the Bapti
Page 36 and 37: to save them from "the wrath to com
Page 38 and 39: aptism—for mature youth and adult
Page 40 and 41: purpose of a rite of maturity is to
Page 42 and 43: church, namely, thatbaptism-chrisma
Page 44 and 45: 31. John Wesley, Works, X: 151. 32.
Page 46 and 47: In Baptismal Covenant I, in the "In
Page 48 and 49: of God without being born of water
Page 50 and 51: they urged a stronger claim for a p
Page 52 and 53: After analyzing how American Method
Page 54 and 55: eferred to as "a symbol of an inner
Page 56 and 57: of baptism is "the washing away the
Page 58 and 59: Although there is only scant likeli
Page 60 and 61: ut the inner man, where we have put
Page 62 and 63: Notes 1. Lawrence Hull Stookey, "Th
Page 64 and 65:
44. Borgen, 159f.; Stein, 319, f, 1
Page 66 and 67:
I am not a liturgical scholar or pr
Page 68 and 69:
ounden duty...to consecrate our chi
Page 70 and 71:
formed in the gospel not only by le
Page 72 and 73:
life, for one could always lose gra
Page 74 and 75:
However, I have focused on human ac
Page 76 and 77:
Osborne, Kenan B. The Christian Sac
Page 78 and 79:
It was raining pretty hard one Satu
Page 80 and 81:
the same time a young man came to s
Page 82 and 83:
theologically unpacked. A pastoral
Page 84 and 85:
Elizabeth Achtemeier's Preaching fr
Page 86 and 87:
prophets by the traditions of ancie
Page 88 and 89:
eading; it seems as if one is heari
Page 90 and 91:
Brueggemann's discussion of royal v
Page 92 and 93:
limitations, even in quite valuable
Page 95 and 96:
M. Eugene Boring Interpreting 1 Pet
Page 97 and 98:
particular way. The particularity o
Page 99 and 100:
in the capital of the empire felt m
Page 101 and 102:
location but about the way we relat
Page 103 and 104:
answer: Read. Interpret. Examine. B
Page 105 and 106:
in liturgical settings. Yet all of
Page 107 and 108:
word accomplished by Jesus, who cal
Page 109 and 110:
community that does what priests do
Page 111 and 112:
kings, slavery as a divinely author
Page 113 and 114:
wives and husbands. To each it migh
Page 115 and 116:
etained some of the oral style appr
Page 117 and 118:
Brox, Norbert. Der erste Petrusbrie
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