| Bishop's CornerWesley
And Eastern Christianity
By Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker
 The Christian
community around the globe consists of four major traditions: Orthodox,
Roman Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal. The second largest group of
Christians in the world is the Orthodox. Orthodox Christians are
distinctive in that they preserve the tradition of Eastern Christianity.
During the last century there has been an
increasing awareness that the theology and spirituality of John and
Charles Wesley were strikingly similar to the theology and
spirituality in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Scholars still debate
about how familiar the Wesleys were with Orthodox writings, but they
do agree that there is a remarkable similarity in the viewpoint of
both the Wesleys and the Orthodox.
In order to better understand the Wesleyan
tradition we should become more knowledgeable about the tradition of
Eastern Orthodoxy. Fortunately there is a new book that provides an
informed discussion about the fascinating similarity between the views
of the Wesleys and the views of major teachers in Eastern Orthodoxy.
The book is “Orthodox and Wesleyan Spirituality” by S. T.
Kimbrough Jr., Editor (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary
Press, 2002). It contains 14 articles by both Wesleyan and Orthodox
scholars on the common themes in both traditions.
In both traditions salvation is understood
as a dynamic process whereby through the grace of God in Jesus Christ
we are being restored to our true nature as creatures made in the
image of God through becoming perfect in love for God and neighbor.
For example, compare the following quotations from John Wesley and the
fourth century Eastern Father of the Church, Gregory of Nyssa.
John Wesley: “Having this hope, that
they shall see God as he is, they purify themselves ever as he is
pure, and are holy, as he that has called them is holy, in all manner
of conversation. Not that they have already attained all that they
shall attain, either are already (in this sense) perfect. But they
daily go on from strength to strength; beholding now, as in a glass,
the glory of the Lord, they are changed into the same image, from
glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Gregory of Nyssa: “Changing in
everything for the better, let him exchange glory for glory, becoming
greater through daily increase, ever perfecting himself, and never
arriving too quickly at the limit of perfection. For this is truly
perfection: never to stop growing toward what is better and never
placing any limit on perfection.”
As one who has spent much of my adult life
reading both the Wesleys and the Eastern teachers, I have become
convinced that one of the creative contributions of the Wesleys is
that they introduced into Western Christianity some of the major
emphases of Eastern Christianity. Some of the emphases of John Wesley,
such as his stress upon Christians going on to perfection in love of
God and neighbor, have been controversial among Western Protestants,
but what may seem controversial in Western thought is commonplace in
Eastern thought.
In order to better understand the Wesleyan
tradition, and, incidentally, to nurture an ecumenical unity between
United Methodists and the Orthodox, we should look more closely at the
comparisons between Wesleyan teaching and Orthodox teaching. “Orthodox
and Wesleyan Spirituality” is the place to begin.
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