이 글에서는 웨슬리의 저널의 중요성을 제기하면서, 저널의 자료, 즉 일 기(Diary)의 특징과 그 연관성, 저널의 문학특징, 저널의 출판 시기와 주요 내용과 사건, 그리고 저널을 통하여 유추할 수 있는 웨슬리의 생각과 사상 더 나아가 18세기 영국의 부흥운동에서 그의 활동을 정리하였다. 이를 위 해, 단순히 신학적인 주제를 따라 추적하는 방법이 아니라, 시간 흐름과 경 과를 의식하는 역사적 방법을 이용하여, 문학적·사회적 정황을 비교하고, 더 나아가 대중문화사의 시각에서 그의 저널을 읽을 것을 제안하려고 한다. 이제까지 한국 신학계에서 웨슬리 저널의 출판 동기와 기록 방법에 대 한 질문이 없을 만큼 웨슬리 연구가 신학주제 중심으로 치우쳐 있었으며, 그 만큼 지성적이고 합리적인 웨슬리 찾기에 기울어져 있었다. 이 글은 웨 슬리의 보다 인간적이고 자연적인 모습을 추적하여, 더 입체적인 웨슬리 복원에 기여하고자 한다. 이 글 결론적으로 웨슬리의 저널에서 다음의 사항이 발견됨을 지적한다. 첫째, 그의 신학이 평생을 통해 발전하고 있다. 그렇게 도달한 것이 바로 “그리스도인의 완전,” 즉 성결을 목표로 하는 신학이었다. 둘째, 저널을 통 해 메소디스트 부흥의 현장을 생생하게 목격할 수 있다. 셋째, 웨슬리는 저널을 위해 현상학적인 방법에 의존하고 있다. 넷째, 웨슬리 저널을 통해 18 세기 영국의 대중사를 볼 수 있다. 마지막으로, 저널을 통하여 결국 웨슬리 는 메소디스트 신도회가 타락한 세상에 대한 대안공동체라는 것을 보이려 고 하였다.

This article aims to explore the relationship between John Wesley’s eschatology and sanctification. It begins with the recognition that eschatology is at the heart of Wesley’s doctrine of entire sanctification or Christian perfection. Although he did not systematically develop his eschatology, John Wesley dealt with the eschatological themes such as death, resurrection, final judgement, and the kingdom of heaven and hell. His eschatological thought was much influenced through German pietist Johann Abrecht Bengel’s works, “Gnomon Novi Testamenti” and “Erklärte Offenbarung.” However, John Wesley declared that he had no opinion about Bengel’s chronological speculations on the Christ’s millennial kingdom, which would begin in 1836. In fact, John Wesley showed so little sympathy and had so little patience with eschatological fervor, which was generated among his Methodists. He tended to identify it with enthusiasm. The reason was that these eschatological enthusiasts stimulated opposition to entire sanctification or Christian perfection. Wesley’s concern for protecting and promulgating this doctrine of perfection may provide a key for understanding his reservations about eschatological fervor. John Wesley insists that it is possible in this life to be brought to entire sanctification and Christian perfection, which is equivalent to a perfection of love for God and neighbor. This doctrine is distinctive from notions of sanctification in other Christian traditions in that it expects the finite equivalent of eschatological fulfillment (i.e. entire sanctification or Christian perfection) as something which can happen in history rather than beyond it. By differing with those who taught that Christian perfection occurs only after death, at the point of death and by holding out for the possibilities of divine grace to perfect us in love in this life, John Wesley was making room for an eschatological hope that could become more than a hope, but rather a gracious reality in the here and now. Moreover, John Wesley, as a sacramentalist, had emphasis on the importance of the sacrament of the Lord’ Supper, which is able to sustain the believers in growth and grace and to lead them through a lifetime of the pursuit of entire sanctification or Christian perfection. “Hymns on the Lord’s Supper” published under the names of both John and Charles Wesley show Wesley’s ‘already’ and ‘not yet’ eschatological thinking.

This paper starts with the preposition that John Wesley’s main theological concern was holiness. Recently, there have been studies criticizing the traditional interpretations of Wesley’s theology that were focused on individual piety; the new studies emphasize the social aspects of Wesley’s ideas and practices. At first, this paper basically agrees that the society-oriented interpretation of Wesley’s theology exhibits its comprehensive dimensions well, and suggests various applications such as social activism and social programs. Due to their social concerns, however, the researchers have ignored the contexts of the passages in which Wesley referred to the word “society,” and, in the end, misunderstood its real meaning. According to its own critical reading, this paper reveals that Wesley’s usage of the term “society” strongly implied the religious society, that is, the community of the people called the Methodists. While Wesley knew religious societies in the late seventeenth century in England, and tried to follow their rules, he pushed forward his own Methodist Society applied to the newer contexts of the Industrial Revolution. The Methodist Society had organized groups and made rules even for the plain, the poor, and the female, all those who were marginalized in English society. Because the Methodist Society gave membership to the people from the whole society, and nourished them spiritually in small groups such as classes and bands, its purpose of reforming the church implied reforming society and the nation. Considering Wesley’s idea of community of goods, we may search for a clue for reforming Korean churches, and, while doing it, show a more excellent way to live within the whole of society, with the accountability groups in the church. In this sense, Wesley’s theology is still effective not only for Wesleyans, but also for all of society’s members.

This paper aims to explore John Wesley’s and early Methodist’s ecumenical spirit and practice at the time when we need more unity and cooperation of the Korean Protestant Churches hosting the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches, 2013. The writer examines his ecumenical spirit and practice in his Journal and Diaries, Letters, and Sermons etc. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was a man of ecumenical spirit and endeavored to take it into practice. In principle, he was a son of Church of England. However, he accepted other christian traditions, unless they didn’t hurt the essentials of christianity. His ultimate goal is to be sanctified and become a perfect Christian, not to be a member of a particular church or denomination. His ecumenical spirit drew on his characteristic stress on the true Christian’s interior life of holiness. His ecumenical central message is summed up as follows in the sermon, “Catholic Spirit”: “So far as in conscience you can (retaining still your own opinions and your own manner of worshipping God), join with me in the work of God, and let us go on hand in hand.” He insisted that “orthodoxy, or right opinions, is, at best, but a very slender part of religion, if it can be allowed to be any part of it at all”, but he also wrote that “A catholic spirit is not a speculative latitudinarianism. It is not an indifference to all opinion: this is the spawn of hell, not the offspring of heaven.” This study also demonstrates how difficult it was for John Wesley and early Methodist to realize their ecumenical spirit in the Methodist Movement which underwent the conflict and division between Wesleyan Methodist and Calvinistic Methodist espoused by George Whitefield. Despite their real differences, John Wesley emphasizes that Christians have a great deal in common and that they must stress and strengthen these existing bonds of unity. He preaches and practises in the 18th century what Christians in the twentieth have recently discovered and formulated. Taking it into consideration, he can be estimated as one of forerunners of modern ecumenical movement.

This article aims to explore John Wesley’s position upon the slave trade and slavery in England of the 18th century and his influences on the campaign for ending the slave trade and slavery. John Wesley, as a leader of awakening movement, was concerned with the personal conversion and the revival of faith and church. Regarding his social and political position, he as a Tory was royal to the english monarch and was against American Independence. Accordingly, he has been seen as conservative in terms of social perspective. It has sometimes caused the speculation that John Wesley was not interested in ending the salve trade and slavery, which is one of the greatest atrocities of civilization at his times. That is the case with the founder of North American Liberation theology and a leading Methodist theologian, James Cone. It is really ironic that he wrote, “The Wesley that has come to us seems very white and quite British, and that ain’t no good for black people who know that the Englishmen are the scoundrels who perfected the slave trade,” and indicated, “one does not get the impression that slavery was one of the burning issues on Wesley’ mind.” Actually, the early mission to Georgia in America brought John Wesley into direct contact with black slaves there. Since then, his concern about the slave trade and slavery had not disappeared in his mind, even though he more concentrated himself on the revival movement ignited by his own conversion. We can find out his criticism upon the slave trade and slavery in his Journals and Diaries, letters, and his Writings. Especially, his tract “Thought upon Slavery,” which partly drew on some writings by Anthony Benezet and Granville Sharp, had a great influence upon the methodists and mass. In his small book, he harshly criticized the slave trade and slavery itself as sum of all inhumane evils. His criticism was based not only on the Bible, but also on the general natural law and justice. Besides, he encouraged some leader of antislavery campaign to continue to do his action. Among these was included William Wilberforce, who spent a lifetime passing the bill for abolishing the slave trade and slavery through Parliament. After death of John Wesley, his follower and methodists still supported William Wilberforce to achieve his goal.

This study investigates John Wesley’s ecclesiology (or his understanding of church, ministry, and sacraments) in the Christian tradition. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was a man of tradition. He inherited his rich legacy from various traditions, and the traditions were instrumental in shaping his ecclesiology. The major traditions on which he drew include primitivism, Anglicanism, Puritanism, and Pietism. He also, though not heavily, drew on the mystics of the Roman Catholicism and indirectly on the reformers. Primitive Christianity offered Wesley an ideal of the church and a model for his personal religious life and Methodist movement. The medieval mysticism, with its stress on inward religion and selfdiscipline, was influential upon Wesley, and its influence lasted throughout his life. Although there is no evidence of medieval Catholicism’s direct influence upon Wesley’s ecclesiology, the character of Wesley’s United Societies is akin to that of Tertiaries of medieval Catholicism in that they were both designed to be auxiliary to the parent body. Wesley drew certain themes such as sanctification and discipline from the reformers indirectly through the Anglican and Puritan traditions. The Anglican tradition was the initial influence upon and a lasting contribution to Wesley’s ecclesiology. Particularly the early Wesley was attached to the High-Church Anglican churchmanship and was enthusiastic to share in its sacramental life and to induce others to do the same. His High-Church Anglicanism, however, clashed with the evangelical conversion of 1738, and later was overshadowed by the combined influence of Puritanism and Pietism. From the Puritans Wesley drew an image of the Christian disciplined life and the instructions in its practice. Puritanism was also a main contributor to Wesley’s unorthodox churchmanship after he became a field preacher in 1739. From the Pietists Wesley learned the importance of the role and training of laity and was impressed by their discipline and enthusiasm for mission. The particular influence of the Pietists was most prominent in the creation and development of Methodist Church organization. Pietism also permanently influenced Wesley’s soteriology, in relation to which he established the character and validity of his ecclesiology. In a sense, Wesley’s ecclesiology was an amalgam of the multiple traditions that he inherited and sought to appropriate in a creative eclecticism. Investigating the historical sources which assisted Wesley in shaping his ecclesiology, this study examines Wesley’s doctrine of church as a whole in relation to the concept of salvation, since soteriology took the central place in his understanding of church. Wesley, with his highly developed sense of mission, shaped and developed his evangelical, functional understanding of church, responding to the spiritual needs of the people he sought to serve.

Unlike the interpretations of some scholars, John Wesley did not have a fundamentalist world view, in which faith ignores or isolates scientific truth, as most revivalists are thought to have. Wesley tried to learn, understand, and use newly introduced scientific knowledge, information, and development. He was so eager to inform his followers of scientific truth as to write his own Compendium of Natural Philosophy, and revised and published it several times. Wesley was more familiar with the term natural philosophy rather than natural science, and he thought he was doing philosophy as universal knowledge. It is, however, hard to say that Wesley was simply an advocate of scientism. Wesley accepted scientific realities in the world, and he thought that the task of science is to describe the measurable and experimental facts and their processes and history. Wesley expected that the original intents and goals of the facts would be answerable by theology. In this sense, Wesley pointed out that the spot to answer all questions beyond science is the starting point of theology. In his thought, science and theology are well balanced, harmonized, and helpful for each other. Firstly, Wesley argued that science is the ground of theology, and the basis of theology. He believed that knowledge of the natural world leads people to faith in and study of God, the Creator and the Provider. On the basis of science, Wesley expected to begin the theology of creation and providence. He did not try to explain the nooks and crannies of facts with the verses from the Bible, because he thought that the mystery and awe is also part of science. He had such an optimistic view of science that he published a book of medical treatments for his preachers. Secondly, for Wesley science could be a ground in his eschatology. Especially, that the old Wesley was interested in natural science shows his expectation for the future, the new heaven and earth, and preparation for his own death. All the things which are mysteries and puzzle us now, believed Wesley, will be explained, understood, and solved in the end. Finally, Wesley’s science implied ethical requirements. As a minister, he tried to persuade his people to be “stewards” keeping the created world and restoring the corrupted parts with God’s grace. Wesley himself got involved in such issues as slavery, education, and female participation in ministry. In this sense, his theology as well as science showed somewhat radical and advanced aspects which some contemporary readers might be hesitant to follow.

Der deutsche lutherische Pietismus war eine einflussreiche Strömung, die John Wesley eine bestimmte theologische Orientierung gab. Diese Untersuchung erläutert den Einfluss bzw. möglichen Einfluss der frühen deutschen lutherischen Pietisten auf Wesley, indem verfolgt wird, was er von den relevanten Quellen der Pietisten wusst und wie er sie nutzte. Wesley gewann die Ideen für die Religion des Herzens oder der innerlichen Religion und dem heiligen Leben vom lutherischen Pietismus. Auch Wesleys methodistische Struktur wurde in gewisser Weise durch das, was er bei den Modellen der Spener-Halle Pietisten beobachtete, beeinflusst, während die methodistische Struktur im Vergleich zu der der Pietisten eher “connexional” war. Wesley war sehr von den Bemühungen Johann Arndts beeindruckt, der versuchte, die Rechtfertigung und die Heiligkeit in seinen Bücher vom wahren Christentum miteinander zu verbinden. Wesley stand unter bedeutendem, wenn auch indirektem Einfluss von Phillip Jakob Spener, der auf die innerliche Religion und auf das Praktische, auf die biblische Theologie, und auf die Vermeidung des unnötigen dogmatischen Streitgesprächs und auf die Entwicklung von kleinen Gruppen großen Wert legte. Wesley las viele Schriften von August Hermann Francke wie z.B. Pietas Hallensis, Nicodemus, Christus sacrae scripturae nucleus oder Manuductio ad lectionem scripturae sacrae, und er folgte dem eindrucksvollen Beispiel der Halle Pietisten, nämlich des Waisenhauses und der Ausbildung. Wesley lernte von den Pietisten, wie wichtig die Rolle der Laien und deren Ausbildung, in Bezug auf die Entwicklung des geistigen Lebens ist. Er wurde außerdem von der Disziplin der Halle Pietisten und ihrer Begeisterung für die Mission stark beeindruckt.