The Limits of a Catholic Spirit: John Wesley, Methodism, and Catholicism

Abstract

It is one of the many ironies of early Methodism that John Wesley was accused by some opponents of being a Jesuit and Jacobite enemy of the British crown, despite his numerous polemical writings warning against the spiritual and political dangers posed by Catholicism. In a period when an intellectual elite were increasingly tolerant of Catholicism, Wesley remained highly suspicious of Roman Catholic intentions. As a noted controversialist in a resolutely Protestant vein, he was even blamed by some for being among the chief instigators of the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780 in London. If Wesley’s theological and practical appraisal of Catholicism was undoubtedly complex, the contradictory accusations levelled against him reflect the feverish state of British public life in the eighteenth century, when religion and politics were inseparably intertwined. Accusing an opponent of harbouring Roman Catholic sympathies was a convenient means of political mudslinging.Typical of Wesley’s literary output on the subject, Popery Calmly Considered (1779) offers anything but a measured assessment of Catholicism. Yet his earlier sermon Catholic Spirit (1755) and Letter to a Roman Catholic (1749) are often cited without reference to their historical context to claim that an apparently eirenic Wesley was more tolerant of Catholicism than most of his contemporaries and in certain respects the forerunner of the twentieth-century ecumenists.Although many commentators have recognized Wesley’s decidedly ambivalent appraisal of Catholicism—a combination of popular anti-Catholicism, reluctance to unchurch its adherents, and appreciation for selected Catholic devotional literature—Methodist and Wesley studies have lacked an in-depth historical study of his intellectual response to the existential encounter with Roman Catholics in person and print. To fill the gap, The Limits of a Catholic Spirit ‘is a historical investigation of John Wesley’s relationship with Catholicism, examining the limits to which Wesley, as an evangelical Protestant, practised his ideal of a catholic spirit’ (197).Yates pays careful attention to Wesley’s journal, letters, and diaries, together with the sermons and other publications, making extensive use of unpublished correspondence and manuscripts relating to Methodist missions in Ireland as well as the Gordon Riots. She argues that the sermon Catholic Spirit was never intended to apply in the case of Roman Catholics but rather was directed toward defusing internal Protestant disputes, typically involving Calvinists and Anglicans. Furthermore, Letter to a Roman Catholic, written in the aftermath of serious riots in Dublin, was intended as a gesture of goodwill to win the trust of Roman Catholics, thereby making them more amenable to evangelical conversion.Yates teaches at Southern Nazarene University, Northwest Nazarene University, and Indiana Wesleyan University. This book is a revision of her PhD thesis completed through the University of Manchester. Such is the scope for reinterpreting the Wesleyan corpus (to which should be added the hymns of Charles Wesley) against its contemporary backdrop, scholars will no doubt continue to debate the theological and political influences on Wesley as well as his strategic intentions. Moreover, a complete understanding of the significance of Wesley’s purposeful editing for Methodist consumption of a select number of popular and obscure Catholic devotional writings awaits with the recent publication of volume XVI in the critical edition of the Works of John Wesley. Meanwhile, The Limits of a Catholic Spirit provides an authoritative survey of Wesley’s reaction to Catholicism in its historical and political context.In the nineteenth century, despite claims to be ‘friends of all, enemies of none’, Methodists in Britain and North America were among the leading opponents of Catholicism, with significant political and civic consequences. Only in the wake of the Second Vatican Council did Methodists begin to perceive Catholicism in more positive light. Nowadays Methodists generally reveal a selective memory of the Wesleyan patrimony, conveniently overlooking their forebears’ anti-Catholic zeal. Proud of Methodism’s long-standing commitment to ecumenism, Methodist leaders often fail to understand why successive popes should be reluctant to share in acknowledging notable Wesleyan anniversaries. Since John Wesley bears a heavy responsibility for shaping subsequent Methodist attitudes toward Catholicism over the course of two centuries, Yates has provided Methodist and Wesley studies with a welcome contribution to understanding his mixed legacy in this regard. For Church historians, The Limits of a Catholic Spirit locates Wesley’s writings on the subject in their immediate religious and political context. Ecumenists will draw salutary lessons from Wesley’s failure to apply to Roman Catholics that catholic spirit of which he wrote so eloquently. Overall, scholars and general readers alike will appreciate this well-researched and accessible study of John Wesley’s response to Catholicism in a turbulent political age of Enlightenment and formative period of Methodist history and theology.