{"id":1712,"date":"2021-05-17T03:45:51","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T01:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/?p=1712"},"modified":"2021-06-19T05:09:17","modified_gmt":"2021-06-19T03:09:17","slug":"the-theology-of-john-wesley-holy-love-and-the-shape-of-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/?p=1712","title":{"rendered":"The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his book\u00a0<em>The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace<\/em>, Kenneth J. Collins offers a profound study of John Wesley\u2019s theology through a systematic framework. In a dialogue with Albert Outler\u2019s \u201cA New Future\u201d and Randy Maddox\u2019s\u00a0<em>Responsible Grace<\/em>, Collins proposes \u201choly love\u201d \u2013 Holiness and grace \u2013 as the \u201caxial theme\u201d\u00a0in\u00a0Wesley\u2019s theology. The author shows other binaries in Wesley\u2019s thought, such as \u201cwork of God alone\/synergism\u201d and \u201cinstantaneous\/process,\u201d in order to highlight the conjunctive character of Wesley\u2019s theology.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Collins begins his book with an examination of the doctrine of God in the Wesleyan theology. In the following chapters, depending on his systematic approach, the author presents a perspective on Wesley\u2019s anthropology, Christology, pneumatology, soteriology, and ecclesiology. At the close of each chapter, Collins examines Wesley\u2019s thoughts in respect of contemporary issues. In the anthropological section, Collins offers a very insightful discussion on \u201cprevenient grace\u201d in Wesley\u2019s thought, in which he compares Wesley, Arminius, John Cassian, and\u00a0Augustine regarding original sin and free will. Collins shows how \u201cprevenient grace\u201d bridges the gap between total depravity and free will in Wesley\u2019s thought, through enabling sinners to accept\u00a0<em>or\u00a0<\/em>refuse the Gospel, thus it represents the only kind of \u201cirresistible grace\u201d in the Wesleyan theology.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Furthermore, in the pneumatological and soteriological sections, Collins differentiates between terminologies used in the Wesleyan studies, such as acceptance and justification, faith of servant in its broad and narrow usage within Wesley&#8217;s writings. In the ecclesiastical section, Collins, in consistence with Maddox\u2019s\u00a0<em>Responsible Grace<\/em>, highlights the \u201creceptionist\u201d understanding in the Wesleyan Eucharistic thought, in which \u201cthe Spirit brings Christ to us, expressing the grace and love of God towards us through the means of bread and wine.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Although there is no doubt that Collins\u2019 text is an outstanding work, a few suggestions could be provided here in order to improve future editions. Collins\u2019 discussion on the gifts of the Spirit in Wesley\u2019s thought tends to depict Wesley as cessationist \u2013 such claim needs further discussion, especially in the light of Wesley\u2019s letter to Conyers Middleton dated 4 July, 1749. In addition, on page 150, the word \u201cVincent\u201d must be replaced by \u201cVinson\u201d in Collins\u2019 reference to Dr. Vinson Synan.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In his book\u00a0The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace, Kenneth J. Collins offers a profound study of John Wesley\u2019s theology through a systematic framework. In a dialogue with Albert Outler\u2019s \u201cA New Future\u201d and Randy Maddox\u2019s\u00a0Responsible Grace, Collins proposes \u201choly love\u201d \u2013 Holiness and grace \u2013 as the \u201caxial theme\u201d\u00a0in\u00a0Wesley\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,12],"tags":[22,15,18],"class_list":["post-1712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-theological-studies","category-wesleyan-studies-book-reviews","tag-book-reviews","tag-theological-studies","tag-wesley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1712"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1923,"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1712\/revisions\/1923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}