{"id":1724,"date":"2021-05-17T03:53:02","date_gmt":"2021-05-17T01:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/?p=1724"},"modified":"2021-06-19T05:09:06","modified_gmt":"2021-06-19T03:09:06","slug":"responsible-grace-john-wesleys-practical-theology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/?p=1724","title":{"rendered":"Responsible Grace: John Wesley&#8217;s Practical Theology"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Randy L. Maddox\u2019s\u00a0<em>Responsible Grace<\/em>\u00a0is a well-articulated theological text that offers an insightful reading of John Wesley\u2019s theology. Maddox\u2019s methodology initially depends on his understanding of the Eastern characteristic of Wesley\u2019s theology (in a dialogue with Wesley\u2019s historical context), as well the theological nuances which penetrated the course of Wesley\u2019s theological journey over the years. Therefore, Maddox tends to distinguish among three phases in Wesley\u2019s theological thought (early, middle, and mature). Maddox arranges his study in a systematic framework. He begins with an examination of Wesley\u2019s understanding of the knowledge of God (revelation), which also includes a discussion on the Wesleyan quadrilateral. The following chapters offer a reading of the Wesleyan understanding of the doctrine of God, humanity, Christology, pneumatology, soteriology, ecclesiology, and eschatology respectively.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An insightful soteriological discussion is found in the third chapter of the book, in which Maddox explains that Wesley\u2019s understanding of saving grace \u201cresonates strongly with the Eastern notion of uncreated grace.\u201d Maddox\u2019s claim opens trajectories to engaging Wesley\u2019s understanding in the discussion on the Greek Orthodox concept of \u201cdivine energies\u201d \u2013 a doctrine that differentiates between the \u201cessence of God\u201d and \u201cdivine energies\/power.\u201d Furthermore, Maddox\u2019s observation that the latter Wesley defended the continuity of the gifts of the Spirit should be discussed in a dialogue with other arguments that depict Wesley as cessationist (e.g. Collins\u2019s argument in\u00a0<em>The Theology of John Wesley<\/em>). In the final chapter of his book, Maddox presents an interesting eschatological discussion on Wesley\u2019s millennial belief, in which Maddox explains, on the one hand, how the middle Wesley abandoned the \u201camillennial\u201d belief, but, on the other hand, Maddox leaves the reader, through various evidence, wondering whether Wesley\u2019s mature position was \u201cpostmillennialism\u201d or \u201cpremillennialism.\u201d\u00a0<em>Responsible Grace<\/em>\u00a0ends by more than 110 pages of insightful endnotes and a very beneficial comprehensive bibliography including primary and secondary works.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Randy L. Maddox\u2019s\u00a0Responsible Grace\u00a0is a well-articulated theological text that offers an insightful reading of John Wesley\u2019s theology. Maddox\u2019s methodology initially depends on his understanding of the Eastern characteristic of Wesley\u2019s theology (in a dialogue with Wesley\u2019s historical context), as well the theological nuances which penetrated the course of Wesley\u2019s theological journey over the years. Therefore, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1753,"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-1724","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\/1724","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=1724"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1754,"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1724\/revisions\/1754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heavenuponearth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}