METODISM. – One of the most important branches of Protestantism, originating in the preaching of the Wesley brothers: John, born at Epworth (Lincolnshire) on 17 June 1703, died in London on 2 March 1781; and Charles, born at Epworth on 18 December 1707, died in London on 29 March 1788.
SUMMARY: I. Origin of Methodism – II. Historical developments of Methodism – III. Doctrine of Methodism.
I. ORIGIN OF M
In his second year of study at Oxford (1729), John Wesley began to attend Communion weekly and “to adhere strictly to the methods of study prescribed by the University.” Shortly afterward he was joined by John, already an Anglican minister, but only then, under the influence of edifying reading (J. Taylor—W. Law, The Imitation of Christ), animated by a more concrete and profound religious feeling. A small group of young men thus gathered around them; they alternated the reading of the classics with that of the New Testament in Greek, and together practised regular exercises of piety and asceticism (fasting, works of charity). In some way they aspired, beyond the mere “justification by virtue of faith” (according to the Protestant conception), to a certain personal sanctification; they were therefore mockingly called Holy Club (“the holy Club”), or Bible biggots, and also, on account of the regularity of their life and studies, “Methodists”; they accepted this nickname.At Oxford George Whitefield joined them, born at Gloucester on 16 December 1714 and deceased at Newburyport (Massachusetts) on 30 September 1770; but in that same year (1735) the Wesleys accepted the invitation of Colonel J. E. Oglethorpe, founder and governor of that colony, to go to Georgia. John’s zeal was not well received there; nevertheless, he succeeded in gathering a small group at Savannah (1736), and above all came to know some Bohemian Brethren who had emigrated there, and felt their influence. This tendency grew stronger when, on his return to England, he met another member of that community, Peter Böhler; and at a meeting on 24 May 1738, John Wesley believed that he perceived the inward testimony of the salvation he had attained: the decisive experience of his life.
A visit to Herrnhut confirmed this for him, and he began, with his brother and Whitefield, to preach among the people, with the aim of “spreading scriptural holiness throughout the land.” The first regular groups thus arose, in London and Bristol in 1739, which may be regarded as the year in which M. was truly born, with meetings in premises now belonging to the two “societies.”
The Wesleys, and Whitefield as well, had no intention whatsoever of founding a new sect, and their movement was originally and in intention a religious “revival” movement, which had precedents and parallels both in England and Wales and, in a certain sense, in German “pietism”—in short, an attempt to give religious warmth and vigour to Anglicanism, stiffened by rationalism and subjection to political power. But it was the Anglican clergy who opposed the new preaching; no longer admitted to the pulpits, it took place in homes and schools and, from 1739, with Whitefield first and Wesley shortly afterward, also in the open air. Thus began a period of decisive crisis, marked by J. Wesley’s gradual estrangement from the Bohemian Brethren, whose “quietism” no longer satisfied him, and by the definitive break (1740), on his return from a journey to America, with G. Whitefield himself, who remained firmly attached to the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. Thus, right at the beginning, came the first of a long series of schisms. Whitefield joined the revival movement begun in Wales through the preaching of Griffith Jones (1684–1761), Howell Harris (1714–1773), Daniel Rowland (1713–90), and the hymn writer W. Williams (1719–91); he also received the support of the Countess of Huntingdon. The “Calvinist Methodist” groups were organized as early as 1742–43, but gradually separated from the Anglican Church; in 1823 they adopted the Calvinist “Westminster Confession of Faith” (of 1647), and formed the Calvinist Methodist Church of Wales, which, after federating with the United Church of Scotland and the Presbyterian Church of England and Ireland, became the Presbyterian Church of Wales.
The Methodist groups increased in number; Wesley, unable to rely on a sufficient number of Anglican ministers, found himself increasingly compelled to depend on laymen, among whom John Nelson distinguished himself—the mason who became a highly effective preacher, whom he met in 1742. The following year he laid down the rules for the organization of the “United Societies,” characterized by their division into “classes” of twelve members, under a “class leader” or “guide” (class leader), a sort of pastor and at the same time a trustee of John himself, through whom he exercised his supervision, including over moral conduct, and his spiritual direction. And he continually extended his activity: in the north, to Newcastle-on-Tyne; in Cornwall, through Charles, an exceptionally prolific and popular hymn writer, who was later to withdraw; in Ireland, which he visited forty-two times after 1747; and in Scotland, where in 1751 he made the first of twenty-two journeys. As early as 1744 he had gathered his preachers in the first annual Conference: this was to become the supreme organ and cornerstone of the entire organization. Nevertheless, there was still no complete break with Anglicanism, and for many years matters remained at this stage, also because of Charles Wesley’s particular reluctance. The separation resulted from the new situation that developed in America. Whitefield had gone there after the Wesleys, and later returned often and died there; but other Methodists had immigrated as well, and in 1766 the Irishman Philip Embury began preaching in New York. He was joined by an army officer, Thomas Webb, and, at approximately the same time, in Maryland, by another Irishman, Robert Strawbridge. Wesley, for his part, sent R. Boardman and J. Pilmoor there in 1769, and R. Wright and Francis Asbury (d. in 1816) in 1771. When the Revolution broke out, the latter remained in America; indeed, it was precisely in 1773 that the first American annual Conference met in Philadelphia. After the independence of the United States had been recognized, in December 1783 a conference meeting in Baltimore appealed to Wesley to provide a constitution that would make American M. autonomous from that of the mother country. The refusal of the Bishop of London to ordain anyone for a dissenting community led Wesley to lay hands on Thomas Coke, an Anglican minister, authorizing him to do the same with Asbury (1734); he also prepared twenty-five articles of faith and a Ritual. Coke and Asbury thus became the leaders of the mother Methodist community in the United States, the Methodist Episcopal Church. In England, having taken that decisive step, Wesley, now extremely old, prepared to do the same. In 1734 he permanently organized the Sovereign Assembly of one hundred preachers, designated by himself, and in 1788 ordained A. Mather, and the following year H. Moore.
II. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS OF M
The subsequent development of m. followed different lines in Great Britain and America, although with certain similarities. In both countries, in fact, one observes the phenomenon customary among Protestant denominations of continual schisms, although this tendency was countered by that of union, which grew stronger especially with the development of «ecumenism» (v.) and in connection with II. One also notes the progressive increase in the functions and authority of the laity, in accordance with a tendency termed democratic. But whereas in the United Kingdom the predominant causes of schism were theological and ecclesiological, and the democratic tendency encountered strong resistance, in the United States such resistance was much weaker, while very great importance was assumed by the questions that disturbed the life of the entire nation: the problem of the Negroes and slavery and, connected with the preceding one, that of the autonomy or sovereignty of the individual States within the Confederation.In England, the Conference of 1791 and those that followed found themselves confronted with the fundamental question of whether to remain within Anglican communion or to leave II. In 1791 it was decided to extend to all preachers the rights conferred by Wesley upon the first 100, who nevertheless remained the official leaders until 1932 (vacancies were to be filled by co-optation). The question of whether it was permissible to administer Communion to ministers not ordained within Anglican Communion was, after lengthy discussions, left by the Plan of pacification of 1793 to the individual local churches. The admission of laymen to the Conference likewise encountered obstacles and was resolved gradually, but only fully in 1878. The question of relations between the local churches and the Conference also aroused lively disagreement. In essence, three principles were contending for predominance: episcopalian, presbyterian, and congregationalist.
Meanwhile, the Methodist New Connexion (1796–97), directed by Alex Kilham, had broken away precisely because it desired a more democratic organization. Subsequently, because they did not accept salaried ministers, the Independent Methodists separated (1805–1806); then, in consequence of a revival of open-air preaching, came the two «revival» movements of Hugh Bourne and William Clowes in Staffordshire (Primitive Methodists, 1811–12), and of Will. O'Bryan (later Bryant) in Devonshire (Bible Christians, 1815). A protest against the power of the Conference led to the separation of the Protestant Methodists (1827–28), while opponents of the establishment of a theological school formed the Wesleyan Methodist Association (1835), and other serious schisms occurred in 1849. But in 1857 the Wesleyan Association (1836), absorbing several of the Protestant Methodists and the Wesleyan Reformers (1849), united to form the United Methodist Free Churches, which in turn, in 1907, merged with the New Connexion and the Bible Christians to form the new United Methodist Church. In turn, this body, the Primitive Methodists, and the Wesleyan Methodist Church amalgamated in 1932 to constitute the Methodist Church of Great Britain. This, together with the Australasian Methodist Church (itself the result of various unions), forms the «eastern section» of the Ecumenical Methodist Conference, which has met every ten years since 1881 (the 1941 meeting, however, took place at Springfield [Massachusetts] in 1947; that of 1951 at Oxford).
The considerable activity of the English Methodists in the missions must be noted here: that in the West Indies began during Wesley’s lifetime; thereafter the missions accompanied the economic and political expansion of Great Britain: in Ceylon (1813), India, Australia, southern and western Africa, China (1851), and Burma (1887).
In the United States, on the other hand, apart from a few cases of dissent for disciplinary or organizational reasons (Union American Methodist Episcopal Church, 1813; Methodist Protestant Church, 1828–30; Congregational Methodist, 1852; Free Methodist Church, in the name of stricter moral rigorism, 1860), the Methodist Church was, on the whole, truly «episcopal», as it was called. Separate communities of Negroes soon arose, however (African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1816; African Union Methodist Episcopal Church, also 1816; African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in New York from 1796, under this name from 1820), and the question of slavery came to be regarded as involving the most fundamental principles of Christian ethics. As early as 1842–43, a group of abolitionists separated and formed the Wesleyan Methodist Connection (later Church of America); and when the Methodists of the Northern States found it scandalous and unacceptable that a Methodist bishop, J. O. Andrew, had become a slaveholder, those of the South separated, forming the Methodist Episcopal Church South. For the same reason, the Methodist Protestant Church and several other minor groups split (the English sects had also made their way into America). Moreover, the policy of keeping Negroes separate from whites continued even after the Civil War, so that the former sought independence (Colored Methodist Episcopal Church South, 1870). The Protestant Methodists reunited in 1877; but the Southern Church remained separate and experienced further schisms for organizational reasons (Congregational Methodist Church, 1872; from it, the New Congregational Methodist Church, 1881).
But although the rivalry between the Northern and Southern Methodist Episcopal Churches continued to make itself felt—and indeed there was the curious phenomenon of the expansion of the Southern Church into Northern States, especially in California and in the region of the States oriented toward the Pacific, and, conversely, of the Northern Church into Southern States—the disagreements gradually diminished, and the need for unity was increasingly felt. Moreover, «democratization» had made great progress, to such an extent that, when negotiations were initiated between the two principal Methodist Episcopal Churches, the Protestants also requested to participate. Thus, after several years of negotiations, the three groups—the Methodist Episcopal, Southern Methodist Episcopal, and Methodist Protestant—merged; this was approved in principle in 1937 and completed at the Conference of Kansas City in 1939. The new Methodist Church is organized on the basis of six major divisions, five territorial and one, called «central», comprising the entire territory of the United States and including all the Negroes who had previously belonged to the three existing communities. The North American Churches, together with the Canadian and Japanese Churches, constitute the «western section» of the Ecumenical Conference.
In Canada, m. was introduced by English preachers (Laurence Loghlan, sent by J. Wesley in 1765) and Americans (Asbury himself went there in 1811), and various branches consequently arose. The process of reunion was rapid: the Methodist Episcopalians, who had become autonomous in 1928, merged with the Wesleyans, of English origin, in 1833; other groups joined them, forming, between 1877 and 1883, the Methodist Church in Canada, which federated in 1925 with Presbyterians and Congregationalists in the United Church of Canada. From Canada and the United States, m. was propagated to Japan (Methodist Church of Japan, 1907).
Methodist organization is still founded upon the directives established by Wesley. The various churches are governed by leaders and, with regard to temporal administration, by stewards («servants», that is, διάλογος; just as, instead of «bishops», bishops, one speaks of «superintendents», ἐπίσκοπος); the various local churches are grouped into «circuits», under the presidency of a superintendent, regarded in essence as primus inter pares. But as early as 1791 in England, after Wesley’s death, and for the sake of
to continue his work, various “circuits” were in turn united into “districts,” with “synods” that meet twice a year and send their representatives to the “conferences.”
This organization was introduced, with some modifications, in the other churches; there are also extensive “missionary areas” (including in Europe) and central conferences; and at the summit is the aforementioned Ecumenical Conference.
The growth of m., already considerable during Wesley’s lifetime, was rapid in the 19th century and, especially in England and through the work of certain minor sects, it made considerable inroads among the working classes. In 1791, Great Britain and Ireland counted 71,668 members, with 294 preachers; in 1945, 783,152 members, with 1,730 ministers. In the Overseas missions (British Empire), approximately 250,000; in the United States, approximately 10 million. Altogether, the actual members of the various communities were estimated at approximately 12 million in 1932; in addition, approximately 10 million people attended the “Sunday schools,” with approximately 1 million teachers and administrators.
In Italy, the first Methodist worship service was held in Modena in 1873; from 1881, the Italian “conference” ceased to be considered missionary. Nevertheless, despite considerable efforts, undertaken especially in the first years after the First World War, it does not appear that m. made significant progress.
III. DOCTRINE OF M
From the doctrinal point of view, Wesley neither wished nor believed that he was innovating. “M., he declared, is the ancient religion, the religion of the Bible, the religion of the primitive Church, the religion of the Church of England.” He began from the premise common to all Protestants, namely, the absolute and total depravity of man after original sin, and drew from his contact with the mystics and from his own personal experience the other concept, that of the interior testimony of the Spirit. But he also felt, and his brother Charles with him, who expressed it in several of his hymns, the universality of Redemption; against the Calvinist Whitefield, the Wesleys reaffirmed the principle that the Saviour died for all. On the other hand, they and their first companions had sought their own personal “sanctification” through the scrupulous fulfilment of their religious and moral duties. Therefore, for the Methodist, justification is indeed the work of faith, but not merely through a wholly external application of the merits of Jesus Christ to the believer, without any cooperation on his part; for them, the faith that justifies is a “faith working through love,” produced by love and in turn bearing the fruits of good works. The sole condition for admission to the community is “a desire to flee the wrath to come and to be free from sin”: hence remorse and repentance for the sins committed, and the firm resolve not to fall again: “the disposition to lead an honourable, peaceful, modest life, abstaining from everything that does not redound to the glory of God.” Protestant theologians therefore commonly classify M. as “Arminian,” insofar as it accepts a certain freedom of the will. Man, however, according to this doctrine, desires and obtains from God the capacity to fulfil the precepts of love of God and neighbour. The inward testimony of the Spirit gives the Christian certainty of his repentance and faith in Christ, assurance of his redemption and of having become a child of God; he therefore spontaneously seeks to free himself entirely from evil and thus to fulfil the divine precepts; in the effort to obey the law of love, he recognises the proof of his real and effective membership in the Church. Christian perfection attainable in this life is nevertheless not considered absolute, such as to render man impeccable; it does not imply liberation from ignorance, error, human weakness, and temptations, but signifies liberation from sin and from evil impulses and desires. Such, for M., is the goal of every truly Christian existence. From the revaluation of freedom of the will and of the usefulness of works derives the interest of its adherents in practical activity and social problems, as well as a certain moral rigorism, especially with regard to temperance, relations between the sexes, and the use of wealth.In other respects, in formulating his 25 articles of faith, Wesley adhered to the 39 Anglican Articles, summarising or somewhat condensing them; with significant modifications, such as, on the other hand, that by which he added “his parliament” to the “majesty of the King,” while eliminating every trace of royal supremacy over religious society. Another characteristic is the constant recourse to the press. The Methodist Book Concern, created in America in 1789 and reorganised in 1939 as Methodist Publishing House, with extensive facilities in Nashville, Cincinnati, and Chicago, and a series of bookshops in the principal cities, is considered one of the most important religious publishing enterprises in the world.