Wesley, Wesleyans, and Reading Bible as Scripture

14. Reading Scripture for Christian Formation

211 14 Reading Scripture for Christian Formation Elaine A. Heath What does it mean to read the Bible for Christian formation as Wesleyans ? How did John Wesley engage formationally with Scripture, and what did he teach others to do? How have Wesley’s theological descendents—teachers and practitioners of Wesleyan Christian formation —carried Wesley’s “scriptural DNA” forward into contemporary methods for reading and praying with the Bible? In this essay we will consider these questions, beginning with John Wesley’s principles and practices. Our goal is to identify and critically consider distinctly Wesleyan practices of reading, praying with, and being shaped by the Bible. While it is true that John Wesley never produced a treatise on his doctrine of Scripture, nor did he preach a sermon focusing exclusively on this topic, the primacy of Scripture in his theology is clear. For Wesley the Bible is the ultimate guide to Christian faith and practice. Since other essays in this volume explore in detail what Wesley understood to be appropriate tools for exegesis and hermeneutics, I will not repeat that information in detail here. It is wise to remember for our focus on Christian formation, however, that the Articles of Faith and the Confession that guided Wesley’s doctrine of Scripture never refer to the text of Scripture as “inspired,” nor do they call the Bible “the Word of God.”1 The Confession states that the Bible “reveals the word of God.”2 212 ✧ Elaine A. Heath Though Wesley was certain that the Bible is inspired, Randy Maddox comments that “it is doubtful that he should be characterized as an inerrantist in the contemporary sense of the term.”3 Wesley read the Bible in its original languages, appreciated the biblical scholarship available to him, and drew heavily from others’ exegetical work in drafting his Explanatory Notes. As Robert Wall notes, “Wesley was shaped by the Enlightenment projects and embraced the critical methods of his day, including a lifelong interest in textual criticism and the importance of reading sacred texts in their linguistic and historical contexts.”4 Thus, when Wesley describes himself as “a man of one book,” he means a book interpreted in community with many other scholars and practitioners of the Christian faith. He also means a book that is different from the many other books in his impressive library, for Wesley understood the Bible to be uniquely sacred writ. We would be in error however, to think that Wesley’s approach to Scripture for Christian formation was naïve, fundamentalist, or uninformed by the emerging critical scholarship of his day. Robert Wall identifies ten interpretive principles Wesley uses in his reading of the Bible for Christian formation.5 To summarize: 1. The Holy Spirit illumines the reader to discern the spiritual truth in Scripture. While the Holy Spirit also inspired the authors of Scripture, the emphasis is on the illumination of readers’ hearts and minds to receive the spiritual meaning of the text. 2. Wesley refers to reading the “naked Bible,” meaning the plain sense of the text has primacy over “abstract reasoning” substituted for reading what is actually there. 3. Wesley’s understanding of the formation of the canon of Scripture is nuanced, demonstrating that he knows that the various “collections were arranged to perform together as an integral whole.” 4. The Bible is a communal text; “its interpretive practices are communal , conversational, and participatory.” 5. The reading and interpretation of the Bible are for purposes of salvation , for the spiritual formation and maturation of disciples.6 6. Preaching, even in academic settings like the university classroom, is the best way to share with others inspired interpretations of the Bible. The bifurcation of academic biblical studies from spiritual formation–oriented readings common today would have been unthinkable to Wesley. Reading Scripture for Christian Formation ✧ 213 7. Wesley expects the biblical text to challenge and change the reader. Critical, suspicious, or detached readings of the Bible are unacceptable. 8. The biblical text causes a change in the life of the Spirit-illumined reader, including attitudes, affections, thoughts, speech, and behaviors. 9. The Spirit-illumined reader is also missionally aware of her or his own cultural environment and thus reads the Bible with neighbor in mind, as to how to live the text faithfully among neighbors so that neighbors come to experience the saving love of God and find answers for their theological questions. This means that preparation...