ABSTRACT The rise of analytic theology can be a useful tool for bringing precision to theological systems of the past. Wesleyan theology stands to benefit from these trends. This article addresses the development of Wesley’s understanding of faith in the years 1725 and 1730—a formative intellectual time in his life—using analytical theology as a method applied to his correspondence with his mother Susanna and other texts. This article argues that while his theology of faith continued to develop into the later view of trust, the early influence of Fiddes and others (which shaped Wesley’s Aristotelian thinking about knowledge as simple apprehension, judgement, and discourse) would remain an important feature of his theological and epistemological thinking.

ABSTRACT This article offers a postcolonial and liberationist hermeneutic for reinterpreting and reassessing Wesleyan and Methodist history. It argues that much of Methodist and Wesleyan history has been shrouded in ‘Whiteness’; this term is concerned less with the epidermis of those racialized as ‘White’, and is more focused on systems, structures, policies, and procedures, all of which incorporate the totality of this phenomenon. As a cradle Methodist and a local preacher, I argue that for contemporary British Methodism to be a truly more radical, inclusive, and diverse ecclesial body, it will need to decolonize its history, rethinking how we see traditional, visible figures and consider the lack of agency of those condemned to the shadows. This work is not a revisionist ‘take down’ of John Wesley; rather, it is a postcolonial-inspired, Black theology hermeneutical reappraisal of our common history, seeking to give agency to often invisible Black voices.

ABSTRACT The journals of John Wesley reveal encounters with smallpox during his ministry. While the disease claimed the lives of parishioners and posed a threat to preachers, Wesley’s concern for souls seemed to diminish the risk of contagion. While his medical reflections reveal genuine interest in the disease, theological essays attribute disease to the fall, while journals evidence a ministry undeterred by disease and death. Providence, prayer, pastoral responsibility, and medicine construct a theology that justified his continued ministry amid smallpox. With renewed interest about ministry during an epidemic, Wesley’s outlook on the intersection of disease and pastoral commitments is beneficial.

ABSTRACT Korean Methodist theologies of inculturation have focused on examining the relationship between the gospel and Korean traditional religious cultures. This article shows how Korean Methodist theology is rooted in nationalism through the works of the first Korean Methodist pastor, Ch’oe Pyŏnghŏn. Then it demonstrates how the nationalism of Korean Methodism continued in first-generation Korean theologians such as Yun Sŏngbŏm, Pyŏn Sŏnhwan, and Yu Tongsik. Lastly, it demonstrates the criticism of nationalism by third-generation (postcolonial) Korean Methodist theologians. In conclusion, the article suggests a new way to overcome nationalism with a Trinitarian theology of inculturation.