Calvinistic Methodism

[AngCath]

Greetings Methodists!
I have some personal/family connection to the UMC. My grandfather was a German (Reformed) Congregationalist, but when he married my grandmother (her father was a Methodist pastor) he converted. They were both serious Christians, but the switch never seemed to be an issue for him.

I know that historically, there were Calvinistic Methodists, but is that still the case? If there are is it congregation wide or up to the individual believer?

Please pardon this Lutheran's ignorance and thank you for any information.

 

[Historicus]

Greetings Methodists!
I have some personal/family connection to the UMC. My grandfather was a German (Reformed) Congregationalist, but when he married my grandmother (her father was a Methodist pastor) he converted. They were both serious Christians, but the switch never seemed to be an issue for him.

I know that historically, there were Calvinistic Methodists, but is that still the case? If there are is it congregation wide or up to the individual believer?

Please pardon this Lutheran's ignorance and thank you for any information.

There are still Calvinistic Methodists in Wales (Presbyterian Church of Wales).

Today, in the US there may be some individuals who personally hold Calvinistic views but it would be very strange and I seriously doubt they would want to remain Methodist since our theology is decidedly Wesleyan/Arminian.

 

[AngCath]

Is that the case both in the UMC and the other Methodist denoms in the US?

 

[circuitrider]

Is that the case both in the UMC and the other Methodist denoms in the US?

Historicus can answer for himself of course. But yes, Methodists of all branches I am aware of in the US are Arminian. The Calvinist Methodists come from a split between Wesley and a small group of other Methodists. Arminianism is the original theology of the Wesleyan movement.

 

[AngCath]

So what happened to the Calvinistic Methodists? Did they die out? Become Presbyterians? Or adopt an Arminian soteriology?

 

[circuitrider]

From looking around the net it appears they merged into the Presbyterian Church by the 1920s. What it amounts to is they that they had more in common with the Presbyterian Church than Methodism.