Mildred Bangs Wynkoop > Quotes

“Purity is not an end in itself. Purity permits the personality to live in full expression of love to God and man. It is the power of a single-hearted devotion and must be kept intact by a daily fellowship with God.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“10. The most important single characteristic of the biblical meaning of perfection is its positive nature. Perfection is not, principally, the absence of all that is less than perfect, but the presence of love with all the dynamic meaning of love.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“Holiness is wholeness and health, and everything God requires of the person from the first stirrings of conviction to the last act of life is in the interest of that wholesomeness.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“In this sense, then, sanctification is primarily the process of redemption. It is process precisely because it is moral and personal and not simply legal. But in the process lie crisis points without which moral degenerates into a nonmoral naturalism.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“LOVE takes the Harshness out of Holiness. Love takes the Incredibility out of Perfection. Love takes the Antinomianism out of Faith. Love takes the Moralism out of Obedience. Love takes the Gnosticism out of Cleansing. Love takes the Abstraction out of Truth. Love puts the Personal into Truth. Love puts the Ethical into Holiness. Love puts Process into Life. Love puts Urgency into Crisis. Love puts Seriousness into Sin. Love puts Fellowship into Perfection. —M. B. W.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“Much blood has been needlessly spilt in history, and the Christian witness has been needlessly clouded, simply because men have equated their opinions with the authority of the Bible itself by fallacious logic.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love

“Christian love creates an atmosphere in which all the creative conflicts may not only exist but also be matured and fully utilized without tearing apart the fabric of Christian unity.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“The fulfilling of the whole law, or mental and spiritual health expressed in a religious way (the only adequate way), is to love God wholly and others as the self. Salvation must include both aspects or fail to do justice to the whole scope of biblical teaching. Self-consciousness is logically prior to the social dimension of the personality. One who has not become a true self will never be able to take his place in a society of selves. Self-love is not sinful in itself but only when it crowds out the “other” selves. When theology speaks of denying self, it ought never to mean that the self is to be disparaged or destroyed. Paul drives for a proper self-estimate in all his letters. No Christian “surrender” weakens the uniqueness and vitality of self-interest and personality. It is only the strong self that can give itself to Christ at all. The basis of spiritual living is the whole self in wholesome integration with all the uniqueness of personality intact, positive and strong, but under the domination of an all-controlling love for Christ—a cleansed self.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love

“When holiness and love are put together, the analogy of the two sides of a coin would be closer to the truth. Neither side can be both sides at the same time. Sides are not to be equated, but the obverse side is as essential to its existence as the face. Love is the essential inner character of holiness, and holiness does not exist apart from love. That is how close they are, and in a certain sense they can be said to be the same thing. At least Wesley consistently defined holiness, as well as perfection, as love.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“Be particularly careful in speaking of yourself: You may not, indeed, deny the work of God; but speak of it, when you are called thereto, in the most inoffensive manner possible. Avoid all magnificent, pompous words; indeed, you need give it no general name; neither perfection, sanctification, the second blessing, nor the having attained. Rather speak of the particulars which God has wrought for you. You may say, “At such a time I felt a change which I am not able to express; and since that time, I have not felt pride, or self-will, or anger, or unbelief; nor anything but a fullness of love to God and to all mankind.” And answer any other plain question that is asked with modesty and simplicity. And if any of you should at any time fall from what you now are, if you should again feel pride or unbelief, or any temper from which you are now delivered; do not deny, do not hide, do not disguise it at all, at the peril of your soul. At all events go to one in whom you can confide, and speak just what you feel. God will enable him to speak a word in season, which shall be health to your soul. (Works, XI, 434-35, italics mine)”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“no man is ever given any comfort by the suggestion that since he is “in sin” and under the bondage of sin, and deceived, and his mind is darkened and his will perverted, he is absolved from responsibility regarding it.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love

“Man fears that God will smother out his individuality, his identity, his selfness. But God made man to find himself, in his love for Him. That love is not restrictive, a narrowing down, an annihilation of all man desires, but an openness to everything that he really wants. Love is the end of bondage and fear. It is a life directive, a guard against that which destroys, a prod to that which explores and discovers and finds the source of all fulfillment in God.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“There is a foundational need inherent in every human person to love someone and to be loved. The self is completed and integrated and wholesome only when there is rapport with others. Mental hospitals are full of people who cannot communicate with others. They distrust, dislike, hate, and finally withdraw from the world of other persons. The condition is called schizophrenia. The need for fellowship is much deeper than sentiment; it is basic to mental health and ultimately to truly human existence. It is not the totally independent person who is the epitome of strength, but precisely the person who is capable of responsible mutual interrelatedness with others while at the same time maintaining a sharp and growing self-identity.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“The New Testament writer’s use of “death” to signify separation from God was well understood by the Jews, as was “life” by contrast.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“Now, “man was made in the image of God.” But “God is a Spirit;” So therefore was man. (Only that spirit, being designed to dwell on earth, was lodged in an earthly tabernacle.)”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love

“Happiness is not an emotional titillation but a harmony of the whole of the self.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“Grace is Christocentric—an outpouring of God’s personal nature through Christ. It is intensely personal; hence there can be no distinctions in grace such as “common” and “saving grace,”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, Foundations of Wesleyan-Arminian Theology

“Individual emotional responses vary widely from person to person in all religious groups, and psychological reactions to life are not essentially determined by one’s theology. But nevertheless, what one believes about himself as a human being and about God’s grace has a bearing on the kind of Christian life one expects and hence experiences. The presence of the Holy Spirit may, and often does, surprise the Christian by a way of life totally unexpected. But one’s theological “complex” may raise a barrier to that surprise that is sometimes difficult to overcome because faith for it is paralyzed by prejudice. If one believes that he must be victimized by sin, his conscience may not rise up to condemn him and his longing for holiness will die.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, Foundations of Wesleyan-Arminian Theology

“The second problem has to do with the way men appropriate grace. A question sharpens the issue. Does faith precede or follow repentance? Is obedience necessary, and why? These simply open the door to many more questions like them. In Scripture it is impossible to isolate such words as faith and love so that they could be said to stand in chronological order to each other. There is an element of repentance in faith that cannot be deleted. Faith is meaningless apart from enough awareness of sin and hatred of it to make believing decisive. Faith must always have enough self-awareness to reject one thing, enough to accept another. Biblical repentance is shot through with faith and obedience. In Scripture, faith is never divorced from the total personality. It must be supported by everything the man is.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“3. Perfectionism may manifest itself in moralism. External conformity to law is of prior importance. Every human act is regulated by law. The law becomes so complex and intricate that dress styles and colors for both men and women, recreational possibilities, and every minutia of personal and corporate life are carefully proscribed. Holiness is measured by this conformity. That a very unpleasant and harsh spirit may accompany this conformity is no argument against it. In fact, it is said, harshness is needed to maintain it and is finally considered to be a sign and assurance of perfection and sanctity.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“Love is the gospel message. Christian love, revealed by God in Christ, is the correction of man’s limited, selfish, selective, perverted love. It stands against any human concept of love projected into a theory of God’s nature and His way with man. It is precisely this unlimited, impartial, indestructible love that needed to be “revealed” because the best in human love has been limited. The very nature of sin is love’s perversion, which makes the self the object of its own dedication.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“Agape has suffered almost irreparable damage by translating it “love,” without the catharsis of careful scholarship.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“Image seems to refer to the experience of “standing before God” in responsible personhood. Likeness makes sense when it is a way of saying what man ought to do and what he does do about that experience of moral freedom.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“Gen. 1:27 and 2:7 need not be considered contradictory. Each account contributes an insight about humanity that would be impossible for any single symbol to suggest about the majestic, corruptible, redeemable, ignorant, fallible, creative, sinful being that man is.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love

“Judas, who (though his feet had also presumably been washed) was not united in this fellowship because his heart was not with them. He remained unclean.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“Sin is the distortion of love.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“Death seemed to depict the finality of the hopelessness which is man’s lot alienated from God. It does not, however, mean loss of any human faculty. Rather it describes the separation which exists between God and man.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism

“There is no ceiling to love.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love

“To affirm that holiness and sin are personal relationships, not things which can be counted and weighed, often sounds like a betrayal of holiness doctrine, and actually heresy. When the very words in Scripture that arise out of the most vital and living situations are interpreted in a way that robs them of life, a transvaluation of the gospel becomes both alarming and dangerous. That biblical exegesis should become the victim of this transvaluation is spiritual tragedy.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love

“Could the dogma of particular election as understood by some theological traditions be the projection of faulty human love into the very nature of God? The gospel was not born in human philosophy but in God’s heart revealed in Christ. This Wesley declared.”
― Mildred Bangs Wynkoop, A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism