John Wesley's scriptural Christianity

by Thomas C. Oden

The first presentation of John Wesley's doctrinal teachings in a systematic form that is also faithful to Wesley's own writings. Wesley was a prolific writer and commentator on Scripture, yet it is commonly held that he was not systematic or internally consistent in his theology and doctrinal teachings. On the contrary, Thomas C. Oden intends to demonstrate here that Wesley displayed a remarkable degree of consistency over sixty years of preaching and ministry. The book helps readers to grasp Wesley's essential teachings in an accessible form so that the person desiring to go directly to Wesley's own writings (which fill eighteen volumes) will know exactly where to turn. This volume focuses on the main doctrinal teachings of Wesley. Subsequent volumes in this series will deal with his pastoral and ethical teachings.

Genres: Theology

384 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 1994

About the author

Thomas C. Oden was Henry Anson Buttz Professor of Theology and Ethics at Drew University in New Jersey from 1980 until his retirement in 2004. He remained faculty emeritus until his death. He was the general editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and the Ancient Christian Doctrine series as well as the author of Classic Christianity, a revision of his three-volume systematic theology.

Reviews

[T.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was required reading for a class I was taking. It was a good collection of information about John Wesley. The book did tend to repeat itself over and over, but overall I enjoyed it.

[J. Ewbank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas C. Oden has done a marvelous job of taking the sermons, letters, Notes of John Wesley on the Bibl, works, etc and showing how the sermons form a complete theological package. This apparently was the way many did in Wesley's day. Wesley did not write a systemataic theology, but in his sermons he covered all of the topics and in some of his tracts he went even deeper in some of the topics that he thought were of vital importance or were being attacked.

Oden has taken all of these sermons, shows where they fall in theological topics, and the taken from Wesley quotes to fill in all of the theological topics. Always he shows where the quotes and material comes from so the book is not only a book about John Wesley's theology it is an organization of John Wesley's quotes that fill all of the topics and where to find them.

A book that should remain on the desk of any serious Wesley student.

J. Robert Ewbank, "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the 'Isms'"