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Invitation to a Journey Session One: Theology as Map-making for Pilgrims
I have thought, I am a creature of the day, passing through life as an arrow through the air. I am a spirit come from God and returning to God; just hovering over the great gulf, til a few moments hence I am no more seen -- I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing, the way to heaven -- how to land safe on that happy shore.
-- John Wesley
Wesley believed that theologians drew maps for pilgrims.
-- (E. Brooks Holifield)
I. Theology in Historical Context
A. The Early Church:
B. Medieval Christianity:
C. The Reformation:
II. Wesley the Theologian
A. Wesley's theological vision
Our thinking about God (ie. Our Christian worldview)
Those practices and disciplines necessary to form and produce that Christian worldview in us:
spiritual instruction
study
shepherding / accountability
worship (personal and corporate)
The means of grace
B. Wesley's theological writings
hymns, journals, sermons, catechism training manuals, abridgements of theological works, liturgies, etc.
C. Wesley the theologian: An evaluation
III. What does Wesleyan theology attempt to be and do?
A. Wesleyan theology is concerned with orthodoxy (lit., "right praise...right belief")
B. Wesleyan theology is concerned with orthopraxis (right practice)
C. Wesleyan theology is concerned with orthokardia (lit., the "right heart" - virtues)
D. Wesleyan theology is concerned to "conjoin knowledge and vital piety."
E. Wesleyan theology is concerned to join information and formation.
F. Wesleyan theology is concerned to form a Christian worldview in persons, and to empower them to live out that worldview through a host of balanced means.
G. Wesleyan theology is not a "belief system" but a belief-informed godly way of life (Collins).
Theology in the Wesleyan mode, then, is imminently practical - it is about map-making for pilgrims journeying toward eternity. Theologians must be concerned with helping pilgrims to travel well such that they land safely at the desired destination. This was Wesley's aim; Wesleyan theology today can do no less.
For Further Reading:
Maddox, Randy. Responsible Grace: John Wesley's Practical Theology. Nashville: Kingswood, 1994.
Maddox, Randy. "The Recovery of Theology as a Practical Discipline." Theological Studies 51 (1990): 650-72.
Maddox, Randy. "John Wesley - Practical Theologian?" Wesleyan Theological Journal 23 (1988): 122-47.
Horst, Mark. "Experimenting With Christian Wholeness: Method in Wesley's Theology." Quarterly Review 7:2 (1987).
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