Perfecting Perfection: Essays in Honor of Henry D. Rack

Abstract

This excellent collection of essays, written by a range of scholars with diverse interests in the field of Wesleyan studies across two continents, is a fitting tribute to the work of Dr Henry Rack. Rack's Reasonable Enthusiast, first published in 1989, remains an authoritative and definitive account of Wesley and the rise of the Methodist movement almost thirty years later, but that should not distract us from the weight of Rack's other published scholarship in a range of related fields. A helpful final section of this volume provides a comprehensive survey of his remarkable achievements, and crowns a collection which is worthy of its dedicatee.Two opening papers map Methodism and its theological concerns onto the Reformation period. Stephen Gunter opens up the fascinating contours of Arminius's theology and reveals the ways in which his successors subtly but significantly moved its trajectory in ways that were to influence Wesley's own reception of his ideas. David Lowes Watson uses the vicissitudes of religion under Henry VIII and the career of Robert Barnes as a lens through which to examine John Wesley's own reception of Protestant tenets of faith, in particular the doctrine of Justification. There were here peculiarly English resources on which he could draw, and the ‘afterlife’ of the Reformation through the work of Wesley is particularly worthy of continued study. One wishes only that Watson had more space to continue his work with a more sustained focus on Wesley's views in this regard.A series of articles shed light on several diverse aspects of early Methodism. The doyen of Wesley studies in America, Richard Heitzenrater, offers a masterly short survey of Wesley's use and understanding of grace in his theology, drawing out the misunderstandings in contemporary Methodist parlance about ‘holy conferencing’, which as originally meant was much more about conversation in general, the everyday interactions of the Methodists, seasoned with grace and love, than about the decision-making processes of the annual gathering of the preachers. Patrick Streiff discusses the sermons of Methodism's founder, with a particularly interesting account of the influence of John Fletcher on Wesley's evolving theological emphases and concerns. Deborah Madden's absorbing elucidation of Wesley's approach to medicine reveals a holistic understanding of human health which was perhaps advanced for its day, and she thus offers also a fresh angle on his complex relationship with Enlightenment thought and emerging scientific method. This piece, indeed, should be read carefully alongside Owen Davies's contribution to the book, an account of Wesley's encounters with and views concerning the supernatural which also seeks to show their influence on later generations of Methodists.Philip Meadows shifts the focus away from Wesley to the pioneering work of the early preachers. In a series of portraits of their itinerant ministries, he draws out their equal emphasis on lifelong discipleship as on conversion, and gives us a touching account of their committed work. The scope of the book is widened further by a pair of chapters which dwell on Methodism's expansion into North America. In John Wigger's comparative biographical sketch, we have a lively and definitive short treatment of the sometimes difficult relationship between Wesley and his protégé Francis Asbury. Wigger notes the political, cultural, and social differences between the two, while drawing out their similarities in approach and method, but he notes also that Asbury succeeded in one key area in which Wesley failed: forming a church with the ability easily to survive his own death. In this bicentenary year of Asbury's death, it is worth pondering this, and taking seriously the author's plea for Asbury's life and work to be better celebrated. Ted Campbell's essay shows us the strength of American ‘frontier’ Methodism in the early nineteenth century through the autobiography of William Stevenson, intriguingly demonstrating both continuity and evolution in the movement's theology at this time.Three final pieces offer compelling but very different comparisons of Methodism and other significant religious movements of the same and subsequent periods. The editor's own examination of Methodism's affinities with and contribution to contemporary Pentecostalism affords a much needed perspective on this often cited but too little explored relationship. Peter Nockles and Martin Wellings conclude the collection with a pair of contrasting but complementary studies, both of Methodism's self-understanding and of how it was interpreted by others, when set against the backdrop of Anglo-Catholicism in the nineteenth century. Wellings's exploration of the fiction of Joseph Hocking in this regard sparkles with wit and insight, and provides a fascinating new perspective.Clearly, this is an important collection of essays by some of those best qualified to write about these topics. It offers many fresh insights into Methodism's rise and character, and is extremely welcome and highly commended.