John Wesley's Teachings, Volume 1: God and Providence Book

Preface 13

Abbreviations 17

Introduction 21

A The Teaching Homily as Christian Doctrine

1 The Scope of Wesley's Teaching

2 The Teaching Homily

3 The Whole Compass of Divinity

B Wesley's Evangelical Connection of Spiritual Formation

1 The Connection

2 The Scope of Wesleyan Connection Today

C My Purpose

1 Why I Write on Wesley: A Note on Vocation

2 Clear Exposition

3 Adhering to Primary Sources

D History and Doctrine

1 The Chief Mentor of Modern Wesley Studies

2 Whether Wesley Was a Systematic Theologian

3 How to Make Practical Use of This Study

Volume 1 God and Providence

Chapter 1 God 35

A Attributes of God

1 The Eternity of God

2 Time

3 The Omnipresence of God

4 The Unity of the Divine Being

5 Relational Attributes: Goodness, Mercy, Holiness, Spirit

6 God, Happiness, and Religion

7 True and False Religion

8 The Wisdom of God's Counsels

9 The First Article of the Articles of Religion: On God

B God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit

1 On the Trinity

2 Spiritual Worship - On Triune Spirituality

Chapter 2 The Primacy of Scripture 65

A The Authority of Scripture

1 The Primacy and Normative Authority of the Plain Sense of Scripture

2 The Analogy of Faith

3 Spirit and Scripture

4 Scripture, Conscience, and General Revelation

B The Inspiration of Holy Scripture

1 A Clear and Concise Demonstration of the Divine Inspiration of Holy Scripture

2 Wesley as Commentator on Scripture

3 On Corrupting the Word of God

Interlude: God's Particular Method of Working 81

Chapter 3 Tradition 83

A Tradition as the Consensual Reception of the Apostolic Teaching

1 The Unchanging Apostolic Tradition of Scripture Teaching through Changing History

2 Wesley as Editor of Classic Christian Writings

Chapter 4 Reason 93

A On Reason

1 Reason as God's Gift

2 Reasoning Out of Scripture

3 The Case of Reason Impartially Considered

4 What Reason Can and Cannot Do

5 The Imperfection of Human Knowledge

B Natural Philosophy

1 Whether There Is Gradual Improvement in Natural Philosophy

2 On Human Understanding

Chapter 5 Experience 111

A On Experience

1 The Necessity and Limits of Experience in Religion

2 On Spiritual Senses

3 On Living without God-The Parable of the Tree Toad

4 The New Birth of the Spiritual Senses

B On Enthusiasm

1 The Nature of Enthusiasm

2 Types of Enthusiasm

3 How Scripture Corrects Experience

C The Catholic Spirit

1 The Premise of Tolerance

2 Challenging Latitudinarianism

3 To a Roman Catholic-An Irenic Letter

D A Caution against Bigotry

1 Why Bigotry Is an Offense against the Catholic Spirit

2 How the Spirit of Bigotry Is Tested

3 How to Examine Our Own Bigotry

Chapter 6 Creation, Providence, and Evil 133

A The Goodness of Creation

1 God's Approbation of His Works

2 The Free-Will Defense

B Spiritual Creation

1 Of Good Angels

2 Of Evil Angels

C Providence

1 On Divine Providence

2 Special Providence

3 On God's Sovereignty

D Theodicy

1 Whence Comes Evil?

2 The Promise of Understanding in the Future

E Evil

1 On Natural Evil

2 The Groaning of Creation and the General Deliverance

Chapter 7 Man 171

A Human Existence: Created, Fallen, and Redeemed

1 The Anthropology of the Articles of Religion

2 Free Will after the Fall (Article 8)

B The Image of God

1 In His Own Image

2 Whether the Image of God May Be Recovered

C What Is Man? Two Discourses

1 Man in Space, Man in Time (First Discourse)

2 On the Greatness of the Human Soul within Space and Time

3 Suppose There Were Other Worlds

4 I Find Something in Me That Thinks (Second Discourse)

5 Human Life a Dream

6 Heavenly Treasure in Earthen Vessels

7 Countering the Overreach of Natural Science

Chapter 8 Sin 189

A On the Deceitfulness of the Human Heart

1 Why Optimists Forever Misjudge the Human Heart

2 Toward Scriptural Realism about the Human Heart: Why Desperately Wicked?

3 Why Deceitful above All Things?

4 Toward the Mending of the Self-Deceived Will

B On the Fall of Man

1 Why Does God Allow Misery and Heartache in the World He Loves?

2 The Consequence of Sin for the Body-Soul Composite

C Spiritual Idolatry

1 Keep Yourselves from Idols

2 Idolatry in the Form of Sensuality

3 Idolatry in the Form of Pride

4 The Idols of Imagination

5 Inordinate Love of Money and Sex

6 Whether Penitent Faith Can Break the Bondage of Idolatry

Chapter 9 Original Sin 199

A The Doctrine of Original Sin according to Scripture, Reason, and Experience

1 Why Wesley Wrote His Longest Treatise on Sin

2 Whether Sin Is a Socially Transmitted Disease

3 Combating the Deist Denial of Original Sin: A Searching Response to John Taylor

B Evidences of Sin Displayed in the History of Sin

1 Human History Attests the Universality of Corruption

2 Whether Human Corruptibility and Misery Are Found Universally

C Sociological Evidences of the Universality of Human Corruption

1 The Universality of Sin in Nontheistic Cultures

2 The Universality of Sin in Theistic Cultures

3 The Universality of Sin in Predominantly Christian Cultures

4 Whether War Is a Prototype of Social Sin

5 Experiential Self-Examination Confirms the Universality of Sin

6 The Unhappiness of Universal Human History Is Due to the Unholiness of Human Choices

D Learning from Scripture about Original Sin

1 From the Beginning

2 Whether One Suffers from Another's Sin

E Sin and Death

1 Distinguishing Temporal Death from Spiritual Death

2 Whether Redemption in Christ Makes Up for Losses Suffered in Adam

3 The Westminster Catechism on Original Sin

E Adam's Headship with Eve's Cooperation

1 Adam as a Public Person: On Federal Headship

2 The Consequence of Adam's Fall for Subsequent Human History

3 The Abyss into Which Humanity Plunged

4 Distinguishing Original Sin from Actual Sin

G Answering Questions on the Insidious Spread of Sin

1 The Intergenerational Sociality of Sin

2 The Communication of the Sin of Adam and Eve to All Humanity

3 Whether Loss of Communion with God Sharpens the Sting of Unexplained Suffering

4 Whether There Remains a Natural Tendency to Sin

5 Whether Guilt May be Imputed from One to Another

H The Hidden Link between Redemption and Original Sin

1 Original Sin and New Birth

2 Retraining Wesley's Doctrine within Contemporary Culture

I Conclusion

Appendix A Alphabetical Correlation of the Sermons in the Jackson and Bicentennial Editions 225

Appendix B Bicentennial Volume Titles Published to Date 231

Subject Index 232

Scripture Index 240