Aldersgate and Athens: John Wesley and the Foundations of Christian Belief

by William J. Abraham

Overview

In his day, John Wesley offered important insights on how to obtain knowledge of God that readily bears fruit in our own times. As premiere Wesleyan scholar William Abraham shows, Wesley's most famous spiritual experience is rife with philosophical significance and implications. Throughout, Abraham brings Wesley's works into fruitful conversation with some of the most important work in contemporary epistemology. Lyrically and succinctly he explores the simultaneous epistemological quest and spiritual pilgrimage that were central to Wesley and the Evangelical Revival of the eighteenth century. In so doing, he provides a learned and eye-opening meditation upon the relationship between reason and faith.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781602582460
Publisher:	Baylor University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2010
Pages:	125
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

William J. Abraham (D.Phil. Oxford University) is Albert Cook Outler Professor of Wesley Studies, and Altshuler Distinguished Teaching Professor, Southern Methodist University, Perkins School of Theology. He is the author or editor of 16 books, including most recently Canonical Theism: A Proposal for Theology and the Church (with Jason E. Vickers and Natalie B. Van Kirk, 2008), Crossing the Threshold of Divine Revelation (2007), and Canon and Criterion in Christian Theology: From the Fathers to Feminism (2002). He lives in Dallas, Texas.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Chapter 1 Faith and the Promises of God 1

Chapter 2 Faith and Personal Experience of God 23

Chapter 3 Faith and the Power of God 41

Chapter 4 Faith and Divine Revelation 61

Notes 81

Bibliography 91

Index 95

What People are Saying About This

This is Abraham at his best. His thought-provoking comments throughout will engage the serious reader for years to come.

Richard P. Heitzenrater

This is Abraham at his best. His thought-provoking comments throughout will engage the serious reader for years to come.

Jerry L. Walls

Abraham draws fascinating lines between Aldersgate and Athens that few could have imagined existed. Priority reading for philosophers of religion.

Editorial Reviews

[ Aldersgate and Athens] encourages believers to look less to a reasoned faith proportionate to the objective (external or public) evidence for theism and more to a faith which generates its own certainty in the encounter with God in revelation and experience.

The Journal of Theological Studies - Graham Gould

...this book is a wonderful addition to any Wesleyan scholar's shelf.

Lee M. Jefferson

William J. Abraham... has given us a slim but rich volume on the epistemology he believes is extractable from Wesley's experience.... Abraham has done us all a favor by clearly and concisely organizing and arguing the evidence of Wesley's theological epistemology. The case he builds comes from a close reading of the text, and by bringing Wesley into conversation with modern philosophers of religion he has shown the continued relevance of this great evangelist and modern saint.

The Living Church - Tony Hunt

"Abraham draws fascinating lines between Aldersgate and Athens that few could have imagined existed. Priority reading for philosophers of religion."

--Jerry L. Walls, author of Heaven: The Logic of Eternal Joy and editor of The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology

"This is Abraham at his best. His thought-provoking comments throughout will engage the serious reader for years to come."

--Richard P. Heitzenrater, The Divinity School, Duke University

From the Publisher