John Wesley’s Trinitarian Theology Explored Through Hymns, Sermons, and Soteriology Essay

Introduction

It is simple to see how John Wesley’s pietistic and anti-rationalistic Christianity hinders the development of a comprehensive concept of the Trinity. Wesley’s relatively scant systematic treatment of the topic and adds credence to the idea that, although being subliminally Trinitarian, his theology is shallow in its ontology hence inclines in the direction of idiosyncratic functionalism. John Wesley skillfully crafted a restatement of classical trinitarianism as a prudent editor of Charles’ hymns that is profound, sophisticated, enlightening, and useful (Phillips, 2022).

Of course, the experiential brilliance of John and Charles is largely responsible for the profundity and clarity of the Trinity idea found in Wesleyan metrical theology. It is important to remember that the ecumenical Creeds were a major source of inspiration for their trinitarian hymnody and the mystical, illuminating piety that lies at the core of these doctrinal formularies.

John Wesley defended the theory of the Trinity in contradiction of the Arians, Socinians, and Deists of his time, demonstrating his professed Trinitarian status. Nevertheless, according to academics like Frank Whaling, Wesley thought that fundamental convictions in prevenient grace, validation by faith, certainty, consecration, and faultless love were more important than belief in the Trinity (The revelation of the love of the humble God, according to Augustine). By drawing attention to the paucity of allusions to this idea in Wesley’s works, Albert Outler shows that Wesley, like other pietists, preferred to embrace obscure beliefs fervently rather than critically examine them. Wesley did not leave behind a structured theological book or much information on the Trinity, but this does not necessarily imply that he reduced the idea to a minor role. The latent trinitarian framework of Wesley’s biblical, soteriological theology and his manifestly orthodox support of the teaching during the trinitarian conflicts of his day surely suggest otherwise.

In reality, Wesley promoted a comprehensive trinitarianism that was both practical and speculative. He did this because he believed that the teaching of the Trinity was crucial to the Christian life. It is argued that studying Wesley’s theological and sermonic writings alongside the body of Wesleyan hymnody is the only way to understand his view of the Trinity fully.

In other words, it is necessary to consider John Wesley’s addresses and records from the perspective of the Charles songs that John revised. Furthermore, it is contended that Wesley’s philosophical yet realistic, musical spirituality of the Trinity is firmly rooted in the Anglican Prayer Book custom, with specific debt to the ecumenical beliefs of Nicaea and Athanasius. This article challenges such an assumption and makes a case for an “organic” reading of John Wesley’s extensive corpus of text and poetry to appreciate the sound theology of the inherent Trinity that forms the basis of his soteriology.

Wesley’s Résumés and Discourses: An Understood Trinitarian Grammar

Wesley seldom explicitly mentions the theology of the Trinity in his works, according to T. W. Pillow. However, it is safe to argue that he continuously thinks about the Trinity. According to Wesley, the Father purposed, the Son paid for, and the Holy Spirit carried out the work of redemption (“in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit”: Trinitarian theology). His biblical annotations and sermons strongly focus on how each person may personally experience the Trinity’s redeeming work when viewed from a Christological perspective. Of course, this includes giving the theology of the Holy Spirit an equal amount of emphasis. Wesley has a unique pneumatocentric soteriology that the Eastern fathers and the British Anglican and Puritan traditions of the seventeenth century strongly inspired.

Wesley asserts that the Holy Spirit serves as both an arbitrator, causing the believer to have an increasing longing for God and an acquaintance with the Son of God. Both sanctification and justification are separate but complementary activities of God in the life of a believer. Through Christ’s work, the first reflects an external change in our relationship with God, and through the activity of the Spirit in people, the second indicates an internal change.

According to Wesley, the personal involvement of the sense of God’s errand and the corresponding impartial direct testimony of the Spirit of one’s divine sonship constitute the Christian’s assurance of salvation. These basic soteriological concepts are perceived as a subtle but significant trinitarian undercurrent in Wesley’s discourse. Wesley’s lone homily on the Trinity makes this implicit theological grounding plain.

Wesley’s Single Conclusive Exposition on the Trinity

A Sermon on 1st John, v., written and published in 1775, is Wesley’s sole lengthy discussion on this topic. Given the uncertainty of the phrase, it is understandable that Wesley was hesitant to refer to the belief of the Trinity as a basic fact. Additionally, he would not urge someone else to use the phrases, individuals or Trinity, as these concepts are not used in the Bible. He was clear in saying, however, that the Three-One God’s truth is not a supplemental concept because it permeates Christianity itself.

Like other realism, air, and light, the earth and sun, and the humanoid soul and physique, Wesley held that belief in the Trinity is an epistemological given, a reality that is not mysterious and incontrovertible. The Three are one in a way that is not described in Revelation, so Wesley should not worry about it, he said. This is where the mystery and incomprehensibility lay.

Wesley does not dispute the theory of the inherent Trinity, but according to J. Young, Wesley is more focused on the pecuniary Trinity since he is neither prone to a philosophical discussion about the notion; nor is he overly concerned about it. Although it is clear that Wesley supported the Trinitarian nature of Christianity, it appears from this discourse that he made no effort to explain it. This may be partially attributable to Wesley’s focus on divinity’s more tentative or concrete parts.

Wesley Propound a “Functional” Doctrine of the Trinity

Wesley needed to advocate simple economic Trinitarians. However, the sermon’s strong emphasis on the anonymity of ‘the Three One God’ is best left as unknown, to be studied and worshiped. Wesley made the identical statement in a note to Jane Catherine March dated four years prior. However, Wesley immediately added the following qualification: The quaint method of naming them three functions rather than people gives away the whole concept. Wainwright draws our attention to that text. Wesley’s admonition against adopting a logical perspective on the Trinity serves as a reminder that theories concerning the Trinity should not be overstated or elevated to conclusive claims. Although this discourse is the main foundation of Wesley’s developed Trinitarian insights, it should not be seen as Wesley’s exhaustive or final stance on the issue because it is only one homiletically work among a large body of literature that was hastily written (as Wesley himself recognized).

Wesley’s status as a homo unius Libri did not imply that he adhered to a strict understanding of sola Scriptura; relatively, he gave the Nicene-Constantinopolitan doctrine a fundamental importance as a summation of scriptural belief and as an interpretative framework for the study of the Scriptures. Wesley acknowledged the trinitarian creeds’ instructional usefulness as essential elements of the worship of regular simple Methodists, affirming them as accurate statements of his theological viewpoint. The Wesley brothers’ trinitarian hymnody is the best example of this anywhere.

Multilayered Wesleyan Hymnody: An Unambiguous Trinitarian Ontology

The Wesley associates initially released a compilation of 24 songs called Gloria Patri…or Psalms on the Trinity. This was trailed by 188 more canticles called Hymns on the Trinity. According to B. Bryant, these hymns were released as a deliberate rebuttal against Unitarianism and a teaching tool to impart Nicene Trinitarians and musical doctrine to Methodist organizations. Charles composed several hymns for the individuals baptized Methodists, with just a small number by himself. The canticles in the Assortment were composed by Charles, but John provided the vocals. Berger makes a compelling case that John’s use of the empirical ordo salutis, or the individual Christian’s faith excursion, as the Collection’s guiding concept has doubled the effect of Charles Wesley’s soteriological focus in the hymns. The theoretical or theological part of Christianity is present even though the songs, like most of John’s lectures, concentrate on Christianity’s biblical, applied, and experienced facets.

Creedal and Prayer Book Trinitarians

Given that Charles and John were the sons of a well-established Anglican minister, the Collection’s general trinitarian grammar and specific trinitarian hymns can be credited to the Book of Common Prayer of the Anglican custom. Commentators have noted that the Wesleys owe a debt to the denominational creeds of the Book of Common Prayer (Hefling, 2020). Wesley distinguishes between the theoretical and the pragmatic, but he does not perceive a division, that is, the dissimilarity between the coherent and the active/sentimental. W

esley’s emotional heart divinity does not imply disjointedness between intellectual, acting, and sensation, as Gregory S. Clapper has persuasively argued. Wesley understood grace to perfect nature while having little need for independent rationalism and philosophical speculating. He saw that religion was not meant to eliminate anyone’s natural capacities but to magnify and develop them, especially their reason.

In John Wesley on Religious Affections, Clapper cites Wesley’s perspective on 1 Corinthians 14:20. The next sentences make it obvious that Wesley is referring to doctrinal truth in this passage. However, he occasionally uses the term “speculative” in a derogatory manner to denote a merely intellectual agreement to ideas disconnected from the complete person. There is room in Wesley’s philosophy for pure inquiry and speculation grounded in revelation and tradition, as the previous secure convention, which in turn must result in orthopraxis and orthopathy.

The Trinity as a Revealed Mystery

The Collections attest that Wesley did not employ the old technique of branding the three heavenly Persons as three offices. Wesley also denotes the Word of God as the Creator, who sacrifices himself for the created. Thus, the identity of the Father is not limited to that of the Maker. Without disputing the Trinitarian setting of this divine Gift, Wesley is also explicit in his acceptance of the indwelling of the Inner self as the legitimate mission of the third divine Individual (Mercer, 2019). Although Wesley explicitly uses agreement theology terminology from the Reformed-Puritan custom, there is no evidence of latent tritheism in this passage because the eternal Three created the world as a single, all-powerful, all-knowing mind. Hymn 253 is one place where the distinctiveness and oneness of the Individuals, as well as their works, are discreetly and artistically conveyed: Come, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Jehovah’s ontological oneness as one all-perfect God and the fundamental differences between the Three Individuals—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost—are evident in both stanzas’ first verses. Wesley says that the economic Trinity is the exact self-revelation of the intrinsic Trinity. This is represented in their separate functions and shared operations that make up the entire economy of grace (Becking, 2020).

The Father wrenches, the Son dashes, and the Spirit lids—these three separate economic duties of the supernatural Persons beautifully expressed in Stanza 2. However, the final three phrases provide room for interpretational ambiguity. It is argued that despite the rhetorical nature of questions evident in the song, there is room for both interpretations given the structure and substance of his songs on the Trinity, which may even make them necessary.

The absurd enigma of the “Three-One God” is accepted as divine exposure – at both the inherent and the pecuniary intensities. This is where the creativity and beauty of Wesleyan trinitarian hymnody lies. It demonstrates that using the esoteric, complex, and exact language found in technical religious treatises is only sometimes necessary due to the profundity of the message. Contrarily, the lyrical, symbolic quality of these hymns, written for regular Methodists, allows for a thorough presentation of the trinitarian enigma in straightforward terms. As a result, they were responsible for the theological substance of the songs in the first place; the Trinitarian hymnody of John and Charles Wesley replicates the moralistic and doxological aim of the ecumenical doctrines.

Conclusion

The Trinity, God the Father (Maker), which teaches about the Trinity’s three members—God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit—describes God as the creator of humanity. In the song Maker, in Whom People Live, Charles Wesley gives the Trinity and God the Maker/Father their respective personalities. By creating us in God’s image, he highlights God’s love for us, a notion that United Methodists still hold or profess. It is acknowledged that Jesus serves as both a mediator between humans and God and a redeemer via his death on the cross and subsequent resurrection.

Additionally, the Holy Spirit motivates Christian faith and reveals God to the unbeliever. Through prevenient grace, one may see that God welcomed everyone into a relationship with him through salvation even before humanity realized its need. Justifying grace demonstrates that one is delivered from sin by receiving God’s love via trust in Jesus Christ. Striving to embody God’s love in one’s life is sanctifying grace and perfection. The student is instructed that the means of grace are ways to experience God’s grace via scripture, prayer, worship, and fasting. A study called “Theology via Charles Wesley’s Songs” sought to deepen understanding of United Methodist doctrine through the use of Wesley’s hymns from The United Methodist Hymnal.

References

Anizor U., Price R., Voss H., “In the name of the father, son, and holy spirit”: Trinitarian theology. (2021). Evangelical Theology. Web.

Becking, B. (2020). More Than One god? Divine Doppelgängers, Penn State University Press, Eisenbrauns.

Hefling, C. (2020). The prayer book was printed. The Book of Common Prayer: A Guide, pp. 253–284. Web.

Mercer, J. A. (2019). Divine generation and human potentiality. Divine Perfection and Human Potentiality, pp. 13–54. Web.

Phillips, P. (2022). Re-receiving Catholic Eucharistic theology from the hymns of John and Charles Wesley. Receptive Ecumenism as Transformative Ecclesial Learning, pp. 167–180. Web.

Studer B. (n.d.). The revelation of the love of the humble God, according to Augustine. Trinity and Incarnation: The Faith of the Early Church. pp. 167-186. Web.