Changing Worldviews

A few days ago someone connected to my blog through the "Religion" category; one that I seldom use because so few things in my life seems to fall under the idea of straight religion. Rather things fall, in my mind at least, more under issues of faith, or Faith.

I often am curious what impressions first-time visitors to my site have, so sometimes I follow the link they did to my site just to see what they saw. The last post I put under that category was from January 2006, about a little quiz on theological worldviews. At that time I scored 82% as an Emergent/Post Modern. But Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan, was a very close second. So I decided to retake the quiz and see if much had changed. It has, and you can see the results below.

There is still much in the first quiz results with which I agree. I still believe that the Gospel is spread "virally" through relationship more than through "evangelization" and revivals. And I still feel alienated from some older forms of church; chiefly the forms that conjure images of the 40s and 50s, where women have a limited role, men dominate, doctrine and tradition prevail over spirituality and Truth, and where the preaching is either overly dramatic (hellfire/damnation stuff) or overly monotone (and usually focused on exegesis alone) and always in that preacher cadence (you know the one I mean; I swear, they must have a class in seminary just for developing that). I have an allergy to such churches even today.

However, I now find myself with some different priorities. I still am convinced that we followers of Christ have the secret to Abundant Life, and that it is imperative that we share it with everyone who will listen to us. But I find that the essence of what I am compelled to share, and the thing that compels me, is the unbelievable, unfailing love and grace of God. That grace is, to me, preeminent in this thing called Life. It covers us long before we even recognize God's whispers of love or His constant activity in and around us. It is what covers our sin, drives us to our knees in sorrow and repentance, and breathes fresh Life in us to try again. God's Grace is what fuels and drives our personal holiness; without it I am convinced we could not be holy; without it we cannot give grace to others when they fail or hurt us.

I'm not theologically or doctrinally trained so I cannot speak much to those issues -- the extent of my knowledge comes a little from my dad's  old Barclay commentaries and my own Matthew Henry commentaries, and a lot from the various teachings of several pastors and teachers (such as Beth Moore, Erwin, Matt Chandler, and Rob Bell) who resonate with my spirit  and my own and others' experiences with God Himself. But what little I have read on John Wesley's teachings and focus resonate within my spirit. It is much of what I have come to believe myself. "Methodism" (ie the Methodist church) of today not so much (at least what I know of it), but what I've seen of what Wesley said back then I like.

I'm interested in reading more on Wesley's teachings but I don't know where to look. So if any of you seminary trained (or just knowledgeable) people out there can recommend books I could read on Wesley's teachings and writings, please let me know.

   

What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan  You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists.           Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan           82% Emergent/Postmodern           54% Reformed Evangelical           54% Neo orthodox           46% Roman Catholic           32% Classical Liberal           25% Charismatic/Pentecostal           25% Modern Liberal           21% Fundamentalist           21%

Comments

[James]

Well, please don't throw the baby out with the pews on the United Methodist Church :) - it still has some good Wesleyan links - check out

http://gbgm-umc.org/UMW/wesley/walk.stm

for a quick take on his understanding of grace and some sermon links. So far as I know, the best way to access Wesley's theology directly is through his sermons - and some of those are available online and others have been collected in various books (undoubtedly your local library would have some - and most fair-sized UMC churches will have a church library where his collected sermons are gathering dust :) but they will be glad to loan them to you!

If you want to read interpretations of Wesleyan theology, probably the premier Wesleyan scholar of the 1980s to 90's was Albert Outler (Perkins School of Theology at SMU in Dallas, Tx) - not sure which of his works would be most productive.

I find myself nearly in the position of some of the Old Testament folks - of having my own priest (actually, my son-in-law is a Methodist pastor) and if you want more informed oppinions of possible readings, let me know and I'll check with him :)

Grace and peace...

[James]

Well, like a bad penny, I'm back :)

A bit of my other reading mentioned John Wesley's journal and it occurred to me that might also be considered one of his 'writings'.

To my surprise, the page at

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/journal.html

offers the journal in a plethora of text formats, including "Theological Markup Language (XML) - 1.1 MB" (which sounds fascinating in itself - imagine, theological XML!). There is even an .MP3 version, which might be good for me on my drive to and from work although that might require me to get a .MP3 player...

Grace and peace