Academic
Mysticism in the Wesleyan Tradition
Outline: "I think the rock on which I had the nearest made shipwreck of the faith was the writings of the mystics," wrote John Wesley to his brother in 1736, eighteen months before his evangelical conversion on Aldersgate Street. Mysticism, in essence, is the belief in a direct and intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation and love. The Mystic believes that one must partake of the divine nature in order to know God, that purification, or holiness, is necessary, and that the guide to purification is perfect love. The error in mysticism that Wesley avoided was a much more subtle form of internal works righteousness, the effort one makes to justify oneself, to make oneself holy through mystical good works: fasting, self-denial, meditation, etc., rather than God's making one righteous through one's faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement. Dr. Tuttle writes of the dross and the gold of mysticism, the "dross" of works righteousness and the "gold" of the holiness that results from the righteousness of faith. Wesley retained a common goal with the mystics, manifested particularly in his doctrine of Christian perfection, and he substituted the evangelical doctrine of justification by faith for the mystical "dark night of the soul."
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