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The Appropriation of Christian Antiquityas A THE APPROPRIATION OF CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITY AS A MEANS OF GRACE IN THE WORKS OF JOHN WESLEY A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of MPhil The Faculty of Humanities 2016 Fu Ho LEE School of Arts, Languages and Cultures 1 LIST OF CONTENTS Chapter 1: Introduction 7 1.1 Terminology of the Research 8 1.2 Outline of the Research 11 Chapter 2: The Literature review for John Wesley’s Appropriation 19 of Christian Antiquity 2.1 Attitudes to John Wesley’s use of Christian Antiquity since the 1960s 19 2.2 Position to analyze Wesley’s appropriation to Christian antiquity 23 Chapter 3: John Wesley and the inheritance of his theology 26 3.1 John Wesley’s theology as a High Churchman 26 3.1.1 Influenced from Wesley’s Family 26 3.1.1.1 Samuel Wesley 27 3.1.1.2 Susanna Wesley 30 3.2 Influenced by the Nonjuror 33 3.2.1 Who is the Nonjuror? 33 2 3.2.2 Nonjuror impacts on Wesley during his time at Oxford 35 3.3 The Critique on John Wesley’s High Churchmanship 39 3.3.1. John Wesley’s theology as similar to an Anglican Pietist 44 3.3.1.1 The Influenced from the pietists 44 3.3.1.2 Influenced by the Moravian 49 Chapter 4: Wesley’s theology on appropriating Christian antiquity 58 4.1 John Wesley’s Theology 58 4.2 The Appropriation of the Christian antiquity under the influence of 64 Wesley’s theology Chapter 5: Understanding of John Wesley’s Epistemology 80 5.1 Eighteenth century epistemology 80 5.1.1 From Descartes to Locke 81 5.1.2 Locke’s Idea of God 88 5.1.3 Peter Browne’s theologizing of the Essay 93 5.2 John Wesley’s Epistemology 97 3 5.2.1 John Wesley and the Eighteenth century epistemology 97 5.2.2 Christian antiquity and the Wesley’s idea of spiritual 113 senses Chapter 6: Applying concept of mean of grace in the Christian 118 antiquity 6.1 What is the Means of Grace for Wesley? 118 6.2 Appropriation of Christian antiquity serves as Means of Grace for 128 Wesley Chapter 7: Conclusion 131 Bibliographies 137 Words Count: 49,225 4 ABSTRACT Fu Ho LEE MPhil Theology University of Manchester 22 August 2016 The Appropriation of Christian antiquity as a means of grace in the works of John Wesley This paper argues that Christian antiquity is one of the means of grace Wesley used to enrich his description of the divine-human relationship. It contrasts with the study of Christian antiquity in Wesley’s texts identified by Ted Campbell who concluded that Wesley used Christian antiquity in polemical, conservative, and programmatic ways to advocate his wish for Christian revival. Wesley’s appropriation of Christian antiquity was influenced by his High Church background, and those experiences received from the Moravians. The Moravian influence coupled with Wesley’s High Church identity, led him to build a theology which treats Christian antiquity similar to the Anglican pietism established by Anthony Horneck. Similarly, by appropriating antiquity, Wesley was seeking for ancient Christian virtues which represented the Christ-like characteristics that help Christians to receive the ‘'spiritual senses’ for knowledge about God. Wesley was educated during the period when British empiricism was at its peak. He adopted the views of John Locke and Peter Browne for his epistemology dealing with physical knowledge, but referred to the long history of Christianity and philosophers such as John Norris, to insist that spiritual senses are needed for spiritual knowledge. It should be noticed that ‘'knowing’ for Wesley was always relational. In other words, he argued, appropriating Christian antiquity would help people receive spiritual senses for true and relational knowledge about God; and this relational knowledge about God is in fact implicating an increase in the relationship with God. For Wesley the means of grace was a channel God used to interact with people. By this interaction, people could become conscious of and even know God. Wesley also proposed the concept of the general means of grace which he argued was instrumental in facilitating Christian self-examination and self-correction. In Wesley's view, humanity could use Christian antiquity as a means of grace to know God thus enabling the divine-human relationship to be enriched Moreover, when a person acquired ancient virtues by appropriating Christian antiquity, they were in fact exercising self-examination and self-correction in their life. This paper therefore concludes that the appropriation of Christian antiquity is a means of grace in the works of John Wesley. 5 DECLARATION: No portion of the work referred to in the thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT: i. The author of this thesis (including any appendices and/or schedules to this thesis) owns certain copyright or related rights in it (the “Copyright”) and s/he has given The University of Manchester certain rights to use such Copyright, including for administrative purposes. ii. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts and whether in hard or electronic copy, may be made only in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) and regulations issued under it or, where appropriate, in accordance with licensing agreements which the University has from time to time. This page must form part of any such copies made. iii. The ownership of certain Copyright, patents, designs, trade marks and other intellectual property (the “Intellectual Property”) and any reproductions of copyright works in the thesis, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions. iv. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and commercialisation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available in the University IP Policy (see http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=487), in any relevant Thesis restriction declarations deposited in the University Library, The University Library’s regulations (see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/library/aboutus/regulations) and in The University’s policy on Presentation of Theses. 6 Chapter 1: Introduction John Wesley stated that, no thinking man will condemn the Fathers of the Church, for having in all ages and nations, appointed some to the ministry, who suppose they had the capacity, yet had not the opportunity of attaining them. But what excuse is this, for one who has the opportunity, and makes no use of it? What can be urged for a person who has had an university education, if he does not understand them all?1 John Wesley treasured antiquity as a source of genuine knowledge on religion. He accepted antiquity as necessary for the argument. Ancient writers therefore were perceived by him to be good interpreters for the Scripture, in which their thought is in line with the sacred texts. Christian antiquity was considered one of the reliable sources for the knowledge of God. Wesley stated, ‘What is…that the doctrine we preach are true?...We prove the doctrines we preach by Scripture and reason; and, if need be, by antiquity.’2 Wesley treated Christian antiquity as one of the authorities on religion, although he sees it only in subservience to Scripture. In light of Christian antiquity, John Wesley preached and wrote his journal and sermons. From Wesley’s point of view, Christian antiquity functions as a stimulus for Christian revival. For example, in his ‘On Clemens Alexandrinus’s Description of a Perfect Christian’, Wesley argued‘the mystic powers of love’ can perfect human soul towards the state of perfection.3 This is to say, Wesley used Clement of Alexandria to describe the state of perfection and the ‘mystic powers of love’. In Wesley’s appropriation of Clement, he applied Clement’s theology and eventually used ‘perfect love’ to be the way of salvation and 1 John Wesley, ‘Address to the Clergy’, 2, in John Emory (ed), The Works of the Late Reverend John Wesley, A.M., vol. 6 (Waugh and Mason, 1835), p.219. 2 John Wesley, ‘Letter to the Bishop of Gloucester’, in Emory (ed), The Works of the Late Reverend John Wesley, vol. 5, p.473. 3 John Wesley, ‘On Clemens Alexandrinus’s Description of a Perfect Christian’, in George Osborn (ed), The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley: Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1739, and 1740 (Scholar's Choice, 2015). 7 sanctification. We can see that Christian antiquity complemented Wesley’s movement for revival and the development of his theology. Therefore in this paper, the researcher proposes a study on how John Wesley appropriated Christian antiquity in his theology, and how his appropriation of Christian antiquity was consistent with his understanding on the means of grace. The main thesis of this paper is to argue that appropriation of Christian antiquity could serve as a means of grace for Wesley. In other words, Wesley’s concept of the means of grace could be applied to understand his appropriation of the Christian antiquity. Before we go deep in our analysis, some terminology used in the paper should first be clarified 1.1 Terminology of the Research Firstly, by Christian antiquity, Wesley referred to ‘the religion of the primitive church, of the whole church in the purest ages’4; by appropriation, it means ‘reading or taking for use’.
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