We're all Wesleyans Now-Part II-Generic Evangelical

Here's part one if you missed it.

I did a little exploring with the software of that test; it doesn't let you go back and change the answers after getting a score; you have to start all over. However, I went back and retook the exam "as a Catholic," disagreeing with Sola Scriptura and strongly agreeing with the Catholic points on Mary, the Pope and communion. It gave me a Catholic score in the 80s and trashed my Reformed score, but did next to nothing to my Wesleyan score.

There are points of Holiness/Wesleyan theology that differ from standard evangelical thought, but they are hard to separate. There's the Arminian theology that God offers salvation to all, but it's up to us to RSVP. There's also the quirky concept of prevenient grace as well as (in some quarters) the idea of the possibility of entire sanctification. However, those theological points don't lend themselves as easily to bullet points

It's a lot easier to pick out a few TULIP bullet points to identify someone who's Reformed. Most evangelicals would agree with Sola Scriptura once it's taken out of the Latin, but the alieness gets a lot of reflexive no's. Likewise, it's easy to get a few Catholic bullet points to weed out the Protestants in the crowd.

Wesleyan doctrine of a universal, but declinable, salvation and a growth in sanctification seems to be more universal in the bullet point version, since people of different Christian flavors will often agree with them, even if they might disagree with their own doctrine if pursued a bit deeper.

I'm not done. I'll go a notch deeper tomorrow.

Comments

[Peter Sean Bradley]

So, Wesleyanism is the "default" because you can't synopsize its basic tenets in 10 words or less?

After reading Richard Hall's excerpt from one of Wesley's sermons, I'm inclined to agree because I didn't understand a word of it.