Methodist Personality Transformation in Context: A Response to Haartman

Abstract

Haartman's analysis of ecstatic experience in early Methodism is contextualized within a brief review of the history of the movement and the theological assertions that underlay these religious behaviors. Wesley emphasized individual, as opposed to institutional religion and affirmed inductive as contrasted with deductive theology. “Sanctification,” Wesley's term for personality transformation, is seen as positive ego development rather than regressive splitting of the ego. Maslow's “peak experience” is affirmed as a valid model for analyzing ecstatic behaviors. Methodism no longer emphasizes such forms of religious expression.