John Wesley's Conception and Use of Scripture

by Scott J. Jones

Despite wide acceptance of the "Wesleyan quadrilateral", significant disagreements have arisen in both academic and church circles about the degree to which Scripture stood in a place of theological primacy for Wesley, or should do so for modern Methodists, and about the proper and appropriate methods of interpreting Scripture. In this important work, Scott J. Jones offers a full-scale investigation of John Wesley's conception and use of Scripture. The results of this careful and thorough investigation are sometimes surprising. Jones argues that for Wesley, religious authority is constituted not by a "quadrilateral", but by a fivefold but unitary locus comprising Scripture, reason, Christian antiquity, the Church of England, and experience. He shows that in actual practice Wesley's reliance on the entire Christian tradition - in particular of the early church and of the Church of England - is far heavier than his stated conception of Scripture would seem to allow, and that Wesley stresses the interdependence of the five dimensions of religious authority for Christian faith and practice.

Genres: Biblical Studies, Theology

272 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1995

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Careful, useful study.
One sentence summary of the work, from the conclusion: "Wesley's theology was grounded in a reading of scripture that holds to the authority of scripture as primary within a complex but unified locus of authority."

[J. Ewbank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jones has given us a well thought out preentation of the scriptures in the life of John Wesley. He has divided it up between Wesley's conception of scripture and his use of scripture to see if there are differences between what Wesley says about it and how he really handles it. This is Jones' doctoral dissertation, but it is preented as a readable and understandable book.He also argues against the famous quadrilateral and comes up with a quintrilateral by dividing the Christian tradition into the early Fathers and The Church of England. This is a book well worth the reading to understand how the primacy of scriptures works out in the thinking of John Wesley. I liked it.

J. Robert Ewbank author "John Wesley, Natural Man, and the Isms" "Wesley's Wars" and "To Whom It May Concern"