Le Cheminement théologique de John Wesley (1703-1791) avec le catholicisme

Abstract

Historians have often distinguished three periods in John Wesley’s (1703-1791) complex religious evolution. These divisions, however pertinent, tend to overshadow one recurring question in the work of the founder of Methodism : what is perfection ? This paper intends to show that the answer was found in the «French School » of the Counter Reformation (Bérulle, the Oratorians and the Saint Sacrement), more specifically in the biography of Gaston de Renty (1611-1649) by Saint-Jure (1651). Wesley adapted the work for his own public, who belonged to a calvinistic and often anti-catholic culture. Perfection is to be understood as a mysticism in action, as a clear rejection of pietism. It goes back to the meaning in the Old Testament and to Stoic philosophy, as opposed to the Platonic vision of an ideal never to be reached.