Description

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Perceptible inspiration, a term used by John Wesley to describe the complicated relationship between Holy Spirit, religious knowledge, and the nature of spiritual being, is not unlike the term 'Methodist' which was also coined by critics of Methodism during the eighteenth century in Britain. John Wesley's adversaries, especially the pseudonymous John Smith with whom Wesley exchanged letters for a period of three years, frequently challenged the plausibility of direct spiritual sensation, which Wesley defended. What does Wesley mean by perceptible inspiration? What does the teaching reveal about the nature and existence of God in Wesley's thinking? What does it suggest about the spiritual nature of humankind? In John Wesley's Pneumatology, it is argued that 'perceptible inspiration' more than a sidebar of Methodist thought, offers a useful model for considering the various features of Wesley's views on the work of the Spirit in relation to human existence, participatory religious knowledge, and moral theology.

About the Author

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Joseph W. Cunningham has a PhD from the University of Manchester (Nazarene Theological College), UK. He is an assistant editor of Wesley and Methodist Studies, a peer-reviewed journal annually published by the Manchester Wesley Research Centre and the Oxford Centre for Methodism and Church History. He teaches in the department of philosophy at Saginaw Valley State University, USA and is senior minister at Saginaw First Free Methodist Church.