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CONSIDER WESLEY

One of the high compliments that can be paid to Wesley is that Christians of wildly different perspectives and traditions have claimed him as one of their own.

From the 1870s through the 1930s and beyond, a series of books and articles examined Wesley in the light of particular Christian traditions. Typically, these books concluded that Wesley could be understood as an exemplar of the particular tradition examined in that book. Although these studies may have offered exaggerated conclusions, many of them found genuine insights into Wesley's life, thought, and spirituality that had been overlooked by earlier interpreters. We begin, then, with the late nineteenth century discovery of Wesley's "High Church" proclivities.

It is important to understand, however, that prior to 1870, with the exception of poet L.R. Southey's Life of Wesley, accounts of Wesley's life and thought were inevitably written by Methodists with the partisan interest of showing the heroic and divinely inspired rise of their own religious tradition. These accounts typically involve exciting accounts of the indefatigable horseback riding preacher, attacked by fierce mobs, bravely preaching the gospel to the poor, complete with statistical summaries of how many miles Wesley rode in his lifetime, and how many souls were converted under the influence of his preaching. American writers often foisted the image of the frontier circuit rider onto Wesley. Wesley was revered, above all, as The Founder of Methodism.

This rather provincial Methodist reading of Wesley was challenged in 1870 with the publication of R.D. Urlin's study of John Wesley's Place in Church History and his Churchman's Life of Wesley. Denny was followed by a number of Anglican interpreters who pointed out a) that Wesley was always an Anglican, that is, never a member of a Methodist Church, b) that Wesley explicitly and consistently expressed his devotion to the Church of England, and moreover c) that Wesley showed clear signs of an inclination towards the "High Church" or "Caroline" party within the Church of England. Wesley's use of the Prayer Book, his sacramental theology, and at least one explicit claim (later in life) to be "an High Churchman" were offered as evidence of his "High" Anglican affiliation.

The view that Urlin advocated has become a standard part of Anglican folklore, a sort of Anglican "urban legend." Mention to a well-educated Episcopalian that you are an earnest Methodist, and you can expect the response, "Really? Did you know that Wesley was actually a High Churchman?" It is almost always stated in exactly this formulaic manner. The implication should be clear: if Methodists want to be faithful to Wesley, they should return to the church of Wesley's own loyalty.

The claim of Wesley's "High Church" inclinations was taken up not only by Anglicans but eventually by others. Catholic author Maximin Piette claimed in his study of John Wesley in the Evolution of Protestantism (Sheed & Ward, 1979) that Wesley marked a turning point in Protestant development, the moment at which Protestantism began to turn back to historic Catholic understandings of sanctity. This was followed in 1958 by English Catholic (former Methodist) J.M. Todd, whose study of John Wesley and the Roman Catholic Church (Hodder and Stoughton, 1958) not only noted Wesley's Catholic inclinations, but concluded with the stunning revelation that Todd regarded Wesley as a saint and had prayed to God through Wesley's intercession. 

The case for the High Church Wesley can be pressed too far. F. Baker's sober study of John Wesley and the Church of England (Abingdon, 1970) acknowledges Wesley's Caroline background, but points out that by the end of Wesley's life, Wesley had revised and published his own version of the Prayer Book, had knowingly violated Anglican canons in ordaining ministers for America, Scotland and (eventually) England, and had allowed Methodists to celebrate Eucharist in their own chapels at the same hour as Anglicans in the local parish church. In Baker's terms, Methodists were de facto separate from Anglicans by the time of Wesley's death, and they were separate because of Wesley's own actions.

It is hard to sustain the case, then, that Wesley really remained a "High Church" Anglican to the end of his days. On the one occasion where he owned the term, he meant it with reference to his conservative political loyalty. With respect to Wesley's sacramental theology, I believe that you can only make Wesley catholic or "High Church" if you choose to ignore some of the more subtle versions of sacramental theology (such as the Reformed understanding of virtualism) that were available in his day.

Nevertheless, we have profited from the investigation of Wesley's "High Church" identification. It remains the case that his own preference was to remain within the Church of England, hence his refusal to allow (or at least admit) a separation. His liturgical piety was clearly formed in the Book of Common Prayer, and even his revisions to it show his basic commitment to the structure and the language of the Prayer Book tradition. J. Walsh has suggested that Wesley's reverence for the poor had roots in his study of Catholic and Caroline spiritual writers. I have argued that the genius of Wesleyan spirituality was in its distinctive "sacramental Evangelicalism," and this spirituality owed much to the piety of the High-Church Anglican tradition.

By Ted A. Campbell, Wesley Theological Seminary.