Why Wesleyans aren't fundamentalists

[Maid Marie]

I love the book that this article was based upon - Square Peg. Great book and article.

Why Wesleyans aren't Fundamentalists

 

[BryanW92]

Link is broken. Try this one: Why Wesleyans Aren’t Fundamentalists - Holiness Today

 

[BryanW92]

I love the book that this article was based upon - Square Peg. Great book and article.

Interesting article. Their characterization of Wesleyans is true, but it is important to understand that the article's point #6, "Usually a reliance upon Reformed (Calvinist) theology." does not flow both ways. Fundamentalists do rely on Reformed theology, but not all people who are Reformed are the cartoon character Fundamentalists portrayed here.

The problem is that, in a Post-Christian society (as western civilization has become), many of those bullet points* at the end of the article become gateways to allowing the culture to enter into Christianity and change the church into an extension of a culture that doesn't understand or even want the church.

I do agree that the real hard-core Fundies do turn the Word into an "it" and that bothers me as much now as it did when I was Wesleyan. I mean, it REALLY bothers me.


*•For Wesleyans, God himself, not information about him, is the primary content of revelation.
•The primary mistake of fundamentalism is that it permits the “Word of God” to become an “it” instead of a “Who.”
•The irony in the contrast between fundamentalism and Wesleyan theology is that Wesleyans end up taking the Bible more seriously than do fundamentalists.
•The principal difference between Wesleyans and fundamentalists springs from contrasting doctrines of Scripture and revelation.
•The Bible uniquely and definitively tells the story of God’s self-disclosure and of humankind’s response. But not everything in the Bible is essential to God’s self-disclosure.
•For fundamentalists, revelation is thought of primarily as divine information or truth about God, humans, and the creation.
•For Wesleyans, “knowing the truth” is primarily a matter of “knowing God,” of being transformed and gifted by him, and of being placed in his service.
•Because Wesleyans don’t lock the Bible into an artificially imposed perfection, the Bible’s long and rich history of composition can be heard.

 

[Maid Marie]

Interesting article. Their characterization of Wesleyans is true, but it is important to understand that the article's point #6, "Usually a reliance upon Reformed (Calvinist) theology." does not flow both ways. Fundamentalists do rely on Reformed theology, but not all people who are Reformed are the cartoon character Fundamentalists portrayed here.

...
I do agree that the real hard-core Fundies do turn the Word into an "it" and that bothers me as much now as it did when I was Wesleyan. I mean, it REALLY bothers me.

Correct, not all those of the Reformed group are fundamentalists. I think the point though of the author is that while some Reformed can be fundamentalists, Wesleyans aren't going to be.

 

[BryanW92]

Correct, not all those of the Reformed group are fundamentalists. I think the point though of the author is that while some Reformed can be fundamentalists, Wesleyans aren't going to be.

I think that quite a few Fundamentalists are not actually Reformed because they believe in free will is the primary component of accepting Christ. The ones I know would describe themselves as a 3-point Calvinist at the most.

 

[Ada Lovelace]

I love the book that this article was based upon - Square Peg. Great book and article.

Why Wesleyans aren't Fundamentalists

Link is broken. Try this one: Why Wesleyans Aren’t Fundamentalists - Holiness Today

Thanks for sharing the link. I just began studying the rise of fundamentalism as part of a history class that examines the political history of ignorance and its long reaching impact on society, and this was really helpful!

I also really liked this book by a Methodist minster named Adam Hamilton called "Making Sense of the Bible."

My family attends a Presbyterian church now because it has such a good youth group but when we lived on the East Coast we went to Methodist churches.

 

[Maid Marie]

Thanks for sharing the link. I just began studying the rise of fundamentalism as part of a history class that examines the political history of ignorance and its long reaching impact on society, and this was really helpful!

I also really liked this book by a Methodist minster named Adam Hamilton called "Making Sense of the Bible."

My family attends a Presbyterian church now because it has such a good youth group but when we lived on the East Coast we went to Methodist churches.

I haven't read anything by Adam Hamilton but I hear that what he writes is good.

 

[GregoryofNyssa]

Thank you, Maid Marie, for sharing that article. Adam Hamilton is definitely a great author and we have used several of his books as a basis for Sunday School studies and are currently going through "Making Sense of the Bible". Another great resource of his is "The Way", which we used during Lent.