I have never heard of this before in my life, and I have come accross the term in three different places in the last week! So, now that my curiousity is piqued, if anyone has the answer, I’d love to hear it!
God bless you and thanks in advance.
This can be a rather pretentious term. Basically it means the form of Christian piety practiced by Christians in the Wesleyan tradition, which would include Methodists and various smaller “holiness” churches, such as Nazarenes, Free Methodists, Wesleyans (yes, there’s a Wesleyan denomination which is not the same thing as the broader Wesleyan tradition), the Salvation Army, the Church of God (Anderson), etc. Some Pentecostal denominations are also basically Wesleyan in their theology.
Wesleyans are closer to Catholicism on many points than other Protestants (Baptists, Calvinists, etc.). We believe, as Catholics do, that God’s grace is sovereign but at the same time works together with our free will, so that we are more optimistic about the possibility for real holiness in this life through the indwelling power of the Spirit. (The hardline “holiness” folks actually believe people can be cleansed from all sin in an instant, but others are a bit more dubious about this.) Wesley himself believed strongly in the sacraments as means of grace, and many people from the Wesleyan tradition (such as OSL and myself) are trying to recover this. The official Methodist liturgical texts reflect this sacramental spirituality, but a lot of local churches don’t.
One of the distinctives of the Wesleyan tradition is an emphasis on what Wesley called “Christian conferencing”–in other words, fellowship and spiritual conversation among Christians. Wesley organized a complex system of small group meetings to keep his followers accountable to other Christians for their spiritual growth–a form of spiritual direction, but less individualized than the Catholic version. This system fell into disuse in the later 19th century, but the enthusiasm for small groups present in many Christian traditions today shows that Wesley was on to something, and many modern Wesleyans of various sorts are trying to find ways of reviving this.
Edwin
