A Living Tradition: Critical Recovery and Reconstruction of Wesleyan Heritage
384
A Living Tradition: Critical Recovery and Reconstruction of Wesleyan Heritage
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Overview
This book engages in a critical recovery and reconstruction of the Wesleyan theological legacy in relation to current theological concepts and Christian practices with the intent to present opportunities for future directions. The contributors address urgent questions from the contexts in which people now live, particularly questions regarding social holiness and Christian practices. To that end, the authors focus on historical figures (John Wesley, Susanna Wesley, Harry Hoosier and Richard Allen); historical developments (such as the ways in which African Americans appropriated Methodism); and theological themes (such as holistic healing, work and vocation, and prophetic grace). The purpose is not to provide a comprehensive historical and theological coverage of the tradition, but to exemplify approaches to historical recovery and reconstruction that follow appropriately the mentorship of John Wesley and the living tradition that has emerged from his witness.
Contributors: W. Stephen Gunter, Richard P. Heitzenrater, Diane Leclerc, William B. McClain, Randy L. Maddox, Rebekah L. Miles, Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore, Amy G. Oden, and Elaine A. Robinson.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781426766497 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Abingdon Press |
| Publication date: | 09/17/2013 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 384 |
| File size: | 599 KB |
About the Author
Richard P. Heitzenrater is William Kellon Quick Professor Emeritus of Church History and Wesleyan Studies at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC, and general editor emeritus of the Bicentennial Edition of The Works of John Wesley.
Elaine A Robinson is Academic Dean and Associate Professor of United Studies and Theology at Saint Paul School of Theology at Oklahoma City University (the second campus for Saint Paul).
Randy L. Maddox is William Kellon Quick Professor Emeritus of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC, and general editor of the Bicentennial Edition of The Works of John Wesley.
W. Stephen Gunter is President of Young Harris College - Young Harris, GA.
Amy G. Oden is Professor of Early Church History and Spirituality at Saint Paul School of Theology at Oklahoma City University and the author of In Her Words, And You Welcomed Me, and Right Here Right Now, all published by Abingdon Press.
Find out more at www.amyoden.com
Rebekah Miles is Professor of Ethics and Practical Theology at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. She is a United Methodist clergy member of the Little Rock Annual Conference. Her service to The United Methodist Church includes membership on the General Board of Church and Society and of the national Genetic Science Task Force as well as a delegate and group leader at a World Methodist Conference.
Joel B. Green is Provost, Dean of the School of Theology, and Professor of New Testament Interpretation of the School of Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Author of many books, he is also a General Editor of the Wesley Study Bible and the Common English Bible.
Samuel M. Powell is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Point Loma Nazarene University. Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion, and Director of Graduate Studies in Religion.
(2007) Karen B. Westerfield Tucker is Professor of Worship at Boston University School of Theology.
Jason E. Vickers is Associate Professor of Theology and Wesleyan Studies at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.
Sondra Ely Wheeler is the Martha Ashby Carr Professor of Christian Ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C.
Ted A. Campbell is Professor of Church History at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University and has authored the following books for Abingdon Press: Methodist Doctrine, Wesley and the Quadrilateral, Wesleyan Essentials in a Multicultural Society, and John Wesley and Christian Antiquity. He lives in Dallas, Texas.
F. Douglas Powe, Jr. is an ordained elder in the Baltimore/Washington Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church. He is the Director of the Lewis Center for Church Leadership and professor of evangelism and of urban ministry at Wesley Theological Seminary. Powe is committed to helping urban congregations and congregations in transitional areas to flourish through community partnering. His research interest are church revitalization, urban theology and Methodist theology. He holds an MDiv from Candler School of Theology and a PhD in systematic theology from Emory University.
2011 Henry H. Knight III is Donald and Pearl Wright Professor of Wesleyan Studies at Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri.
Rex D. Matthews is Visiting Assistant Professor of Historical Theology, Candler School of Theology, Emory University.
Read an Excerpt
A Living Tradition
Critical Recovery and Reconstruction of Wesleyan Heritage
By Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore
Abingdon Press
Copyright © 2013 Abingdon PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4267-6649-7
CHAPTER 1
Engaging the Past—Engaging the Future
Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore
The first four decades of the twenty-first century mark many anniversaries for the Wesleyan movement, posing a critical question. Where does the Wesleyan legacy point its inheritors today, especially as we near the end of the movement's third century? The quadricentennial of John Wesley's birth in 1703 and Charles Wesley's in 1707 were significant, but they did not mark the birth of a movement. In one sense, it was already born in its historical and cultural antecedents; in another sense, it was not born in its unique Wesleyan way until many years later. John Wesley dated the origins with the founding of the Holy Club in 1729, and another significant marker is John Wesley's Aldersgate experience (to be celebrated again in 2038). Anniversaries invite attention to the shared historical roots and identity of people called Methodist. More profoundly, they invite close examination of the Wesleyan-Methodist legacy—its theological substance and its historical trajectory. One aspect of that legacy—Wesleyan ways of doing theology—has been highlighted in recent years but never fully engaged by a community of scholars working together from diverse fields of expertise and diverse concerns for the future. The present volume gives opportunity to engage in critical recovery and reconstruction of the Wesleyan theological legacy in relation to theological concepts and Christian practices in the present world and with intention to point directions for the future.
The authors are a community of scholars who engage the Wesleyan legacy with critical scholarship and urgent questions from the contexts in which people now live, particularly questions regarding social holiness and Christian practices. To that end, the authors focus on historical figures (John Wesley, Susanna Wesley, Harry Hoosier, and Richard Allen), historical developments (such as the ways in which African Americans appropriated Methodism), and theological themes (such as holistic healing, work and vocation, and prophetic grace). The purpose is not to provide a comprehensive historical and theological coverage of the tradition, but to exemplify approaches to historical recovery and reconstruction that follow appropriately the mentorship of John Wesley and the living tradition that has emerged from his witness. What marks this volume as unique and urgent is its focus on recovery and re-visioning. It is not a straightforwardly historical study of the Wesleys or of Methodism. It is, rather, a record and analysis of the living quality of the Wesleyan tradition and the ways in which that tradition now points to the future.
In this book, we consider the fruits and challenges of Wesleyan-Methodist scholarship as we near the close of the third century, pausing to reflect on where we are and where we are going. The goals of this first chapter are (1) to explore the significance of critical retrieval and reconstruction for theology, and (2) to identify promises and challenges in a praxeological approach to Wesleyan studies. As to the first, the volume is clearly historical and is continuous with recent scholarship in Methodist theological studies, though with unique accents. As to the second, the explicitly praxeological character of this book has been less fully developed in Methodist studies heretofore, though with some stunning examples in a similar genre. To extend this dimension of Wesleyan scholarship, the authors focus attention on human action and the theological logic thereof. They draw critically upon John Wesley and other leaders of the past as mentors for theological activity (how we do theology); they engage with issues critical to people at the present moment of time; and they project futures for Wesleyan scholarship and Christian life. The book is thus historical, theological, contextual, and practical—an effort to embody John Wesley's practical divinity.
Significance of Critical Retrieval and Reconstruction
The very process of passing on a heritage, or sharing the stories of John and Charles Wesley and the "people called Methodist," is an act of re-telling, re-interpreting, and re-shaping. The heritage is amplified and reshaped as people live within it, as larger cultural movements shape it and are shaped by it, and as scholars and adherents actively structure and restructure the historical memories. Inevitably, periods of intense remembering raise questions about historical fact and neglected or distorted traditions. The act of remembering also raises issues regarding the interpretation, coherence, practices, and adequacy (or inadequacy) of a tradition.
The process of remembering, with its attendant values of critical retrieval and reconstruction, is shared by most (if not all) religious and cultural traditions of the human family. People rehearse the past for many reasons, and the reasons have been studied through the lenses of diverse disciplines and religious traditions. The essays in this volume reveal passions that motivate and inform historical remembering in the broader religious literature and in Wesleyan studies. Five purposes for remembering are particularly evident in recent work, and this book engages and extends these purposes in distinctive ways.
Define a Unique Tradition
One purpose for remembering is to define or develop the uniqueness of a community's particular tradition in the encounter with other cultures. This dynamic is exemplified in the tradition-defining and tradition-forming processes among Jews after the conquests of Alexander the Great released powerful currents of Hellenization in the eastern Mediterranean region. Similar efforts to define identity emerge throughout history, particularly in chaotic cultural contexts. Anthropologists argue that communities often act reflexively to establish a definitive culture as an effort to counteract the fragmentation of cultures.
Such processes of self-definition can be seen as major accents in some chapters of this volume; the accent is present to some extent in every chapter. Consider Amy Oden's writing on hospitality in the Wesleyan tradition. Oden identifies the virtue and values of hospitality within the Wesleyan tradition, continuing her studies of hospitality in early Christianity. In so doing, she establishes a defining perspective on the heritage, which can then be claimed and expanded by inheritors of that tradition. Given the present urgency for the human family to engage more adequately with immigrant peoples on all continents, and to engage more respectfully with strangers in a highly mobile world, Oden's recovery of hospitality in Wesleyan traditions reveals a way to define the tradition in relation to its past and, simultaneously, in relation to challenges of the present world. This provides a way for Wesleyan peoples to identify themselves as people of hospitality and to find clues for their present self-reflection and public action.
Other authors in this volume have similarly stressed Wesleyan themes as central to Wesleyan identity today. Accents include the theme of evangelistic fervor and social inclusiveness in the chapter by William McClain; the theme of holy work and vocation in the chapter by Rebekah Miles; and the theme of prophetic grace in my chapter. One sees similar efforts in recent Wesleyan scholarship, in which authors seek to define the tradition with historical thoroughness and conceptual coherence in relation to an identifying mark. One such work is Theodore Runyon's description of Wesley's theology in relation to creation and New Creation, a work that has been amplified by others. Other efforts focus on love, as in Albert Outler, Stephen Gunter, and the collection of Bryan Stone and Thomas Oord. Still others emphasize the priority of attending to and valuing the lives of people living in poverty—an accent of Richard Heitzenrater, José Míguez Bonino, Joerg Rieger, John Vincent, Harold Recinos, and many others. These are all efforts to name distinctive, identity-forming emphases in the Wesleyan traditions, informed by historical remembering.
Rediscover and Reclaim Religious Beliefs, Values, and Practices
A second purpose of historical remembering is to rediscover and reclaim religious beliefs, values, and practices in a rapidly changing world. The discovery process can be seen in explorations of particular aspects of the past or in the retrieval of historical resources for contemporary practice. It often takes the form of intellectual discovery or rediscovery, as in the retrieval and analysis of underplayed aspects of the sixteenth- century Lutheran tradition. The discovery process also includes the study of newly emerging forms of ancient traditions, as exemplified in a recent study of Sufism in its encounters with global Muslim cultures. Further, the discovery process is generating research and publications on the salutary effects of traditional religious practices, such as recent studies of Buddhist compassion meditation in the treatment of depression and other neuroendocrinological problems. Finally, an increasingly popular form of discovery is the expanding effort to provide popular, salutary access to religious values and practices, whether from Buddhist, Celtic, Benedictine, or other traditions.
The effort to rediscover and reclaim is evident in this volume. Randy Maddox, for example, highlights Wesley's attention to physical healing as a distinctive accent for recovery. Maddox describes Wesley's approach as having theological integrity, biological wisdom, and ministerial importance. Drawing on Primitive Physick and other works, he argues that John Wesley valued healing and health as a gift from God and viewed acts of healing as a compassionate response to human hurt. Further, Maddox uncovers social dimensions of poor health and healing in Wesley, like the role of poverty in obstructing healthy life practices and accessibility to healthcare. Maddox argues that these Wesleyan accents need to be recovered during an era when healthcare needs are crying for more attention by Christian communities.
Other chapters in this volume similarly accent rediscovery and reclaiming of the Wesleyan tradition. Richard Heitzenrater urges a rediscovery that is more accurate and more accountable to the historical evidence, counteracting false tales and popular misconceptions. Stephen Gunter urges rediscovery of proto-feminist strains in the tradition, and Rebekah Miles accents Wesley's penetrating perspectives on work and vocation. Miles makes a case that the Wesleyan tradition illumines the role of work in human life and advocates holistic life patterns. She argues that Wesley's own work habits are a poor model, but "the larger pattern of his life, particularly his reflections on work, vocation, and calling," provide a more nuanced model. Miles explicates this larger, more nuanced view and points to its implications for Christian practice today. Thus, she engages in critical rediscovery and robust reclaiming.
The goal of rediscovery has dominated the field of Wesleyan studies in recent years. The efforts are not hagiographic, to be sure. They are attempts to recover a more accurate, critical, and illuminating picture of John and Charles Wesley and the global Wesleyan movement, with its multiple institutional forms. The goal of rediscovery and reclaiming is found in such works as Richard Heitzenrater and Reginald Ward on John Wesley's diaries; Randy Maddox on Wesley's practical theology; Ted Jennings, José Míguez Bonino, Joerg Rieger, John Vincent, Pamela Couture, Douglas Meeks, and Heitzenrater on Wesley and the poor; Russell Richey, William Lawrence, Tom Frank, and Mary Elizabeth Moore on ecclesiology and ministry; Grant Shockley, Bobby McClain, and William Graveley on Methodism, slavery, and race; Melvin Dieter, Donald Dayton, and Kenneth Rowe on accents of holy living in the Wesleys and in Holiness traditions; Rosemary Skinner Keller, Paul Chilcote, and Diane Leclerc on women in Methodist traditions; Rob Weber, Elaine Robinson, Henry Knight, F. Douglas Powe, and John Sungschul Hong on Wesley and evangelism; Manfred Marquardt and Ted Weber on Wesleyan ethics and political order; and Greg Clapper, Paul Chilcote, and Sondra Matthaei on spiritual experience and formation in Wesleyan heritage. This list is a small sample; indeed, a large portion of recent Wesleyan scholarship focuses on rediscovery and reclaiming as a major purpose. Naming a few works reveals the breadth of recent research aimed toward re-appropriating Wesleyan traditions.
Critique and Reconstruct Religious Beliefs, Values, and Practices
A complementary purpose of historical remembering is to critique and reconstruct religious beliefs, values, and practices. Many authors seek to do both reclaiming and critique in relation to one another; however, many works emphasize one or the other. The purpose of critique and reconstruction is represented by classic liberation theology, beginning with the early works of James Cone, Rosemary Radford Ruether, José Míguez Bonino, Delores Williams, Hyun Kyung Chung, and Mercy Amba Oduyoye, to name a few. This literature has expanded exponentially in the past four decades. Even with the growing emphasis on liberation and the radical transformation of traditions, however, the purposes of critique and reform have played a lesser role in Wesleyan studies until more recently. The minimal attention to these purposes may be attributed to the demographics of people engaged in Wesleyan studies or the lack of public awareness of the tradition as an influence in theology and public practice beyond the Methodist and Wesleyan churches. Perhaps, also, the Wesleyan rediscovery and reclaiming work has not yet been fully done and is a necessary precursor to the more critical, reformative work. Whatever the reasons, this work is ripe for present attention and is well represented in this volume.
Most chapters in this volume have elements of critique and reform, but I will highlight two here. Bobby McClain raises a critical question to the tradition as he rehearses the history of African American peoples in Methodist communions in the United States. He asks what was the original appeal and why have so many African Americans stayed in a tradition that was oppressive to them, and especially why have so many stayed in what is now The United Methodist Church. McClain argues that the evangelistic fervor and anti- slavery stance of early Methodists in the United States drew many African Americans, slaves and free. Since that time, the road has been filled with overwhelming challenges, but the persistent presence and witness of African Americans is itself a powerful legacy, as are the critiques they have raised. Their legacy points to the urgency of inclusiveness in the contemporary church.
Diane Leclerc has similarly seen in the Methodist tradition threads to celebrate and threads to critique and reform. She finds Wesley's theology of sin, and his interactions with women, to be more complex than most interpreters have recognized. Close investigation reveals a persistent and lingering misogyny. Leclerc chooses to adopt the stance of "strategic essentialism" to critique Wesley's misogynistic view of women's sin as "inordinate affection." She finds Wesley's view of sin to be more nuanced than often recognized, but inadequate to address the fullness of women's and men's lives. Thus, she concludes with an argument that feminist theology is still needed to probe, critique, and reform Wesleyan hamartiology.
These two essays are joined in this volume by chapters by Elaine Robinson on los desaparecidos ("the disappeared") in Latin America and Mary Elizabeth Moore on prophetic grace. Together with the larger critical and liberatory literature in theology, these several chapters represent a newly emerging movement in Wesleyan studies. While such efforts have not been dominant heretofore, they have not been absent. One example of such effort is the collection by Joerg Rieger and John J. Vincent, entitled Methodist and Radical: Rejuvenating a Tradition. The authors represented in that book are themselves people who have written many other essays and books that point to radicality in the Methodist movement and failures in the theologies and practices of the movement to live fully into its own prophetic heritage. Further, some of the liberation theologians who address theology more generally, such as James Cone, José Míguez Bonino, and Mercy Amba Oduyoye, are themselves part of the Methodist family. The purpose of critique and reconstruction is part of the tradition itself and, increasingly, part of research in Methodist or Wesleyan studies.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A Living Tradition by Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore. Copyright © 2013 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Contributors,Preface,
Chapter One: Engaging the Past—Engaging the Future Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore,
Chapter Two: The Wesleyan Tradition and the Myths We Love Richard P. Heitzenrater,
Chapter Three: African American Methodists and United Methodism: A Peculiar Relationship or a Strange Affair? William B. McClain,
Chapter Four: Susanna Annesley Wesley: A Woman of Spirit and Spirituality W. Stephen Gunter,
Chapter Five: Hospitality as a Living Wesleyan Tradition Amy G. Oden,
Chapter Six: Reconsidering Sin: Women and the Unwitting Wisdom of John Wesley Diane Leclerc,
Chapter Seven: A Heritage Reclaimed: John Wesley on Holistic Health and Healing Randy L. Maddox,
Chapter Eight: Holy Hearth, Holy Life, Holy Work: Work, Vocation, and Calling in the Wesleyan Tradition Rebekah L. Miles,
Chapter Nine: Recovering Los Desparecidos Elaine A. Robinson,
Chapter Ten: Prophetic Grace: A Wesleyan Heritage of Repairing the World Mary Elizabeth Mullino Moore,