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The theology of John Wesley was not created in a vacuum. His experience, understanding and practice of the Christian faith were influenced by many expressions of its historic development. His theological heritage was shaped by the views of his parents, formal education, extensive reading and study, and constant reflection. By these means he became familiar with a wide variety of personalities, movements and schools of thought whose theological positions informed his life and beliefs.

Wesley was not reluctant to appropriate any portion of Christian tradition which he considered reputable and suitable to undergird Christian commitment. If it passed his critical scrutiny, he was ready to adopt it for his personal use and for the guidance of the Methodist societies. Without disparaging his creativity one must acknowledge that he was a skillful borrower and synthesizer of ideas from many sources.

An outstanding example of Wesley’s ability to use some of the breadth of Christian tradition and to incorporate its riches was the publication of A Christian Library. Between 1749 and 1755 Wesley carefully assembled and published this fifty-volume collection of devotional nourishment for the Methodist people and their preachers. It contained what Wesley judged to be the best tracts of “practical divinity.” Included were selections from the early church fathers, Pietism, mysticism, the Puritans and Church of England authors. This ambitious project illustrates Wesley’s willingness to draw instruction and inspiration from different eras of Christian history.

A comprehensive and definitive account of the influences on Wesley’s life and theology has yet to be written. We can mention, however, a few of the principal sources which provided a context for his beliefs and molded his theology. Although they seem to be listed as individual threads, Wesley hardly considered them in isolation from each other. For him they were parts of the whole fabric of a lively and dynamic Christian faith.

John Wesley was a Church of England man. He was born and reared in an Anglican environment. His home, academic training, ordination, missionary service, and the remainder of his ministry to the day of his death were related to the Church of England. It was never his intention to form a new church. We should not be surprised, therefore, to learn that the theological heritage of the Church of England was the first major ingredient in his perception of Christianity. It was the bedrock of Wesley’s theology. He highly esteemed and learned much from the writings of classical Anglican thinkers such as Chillingworth, Hooker and Laud. His profound respect for scripture, reason and tradition as authorities for Christian thought and practice was rooted in standard Church of England theology.

Yet the Church of England and its glorious legacy which Wesley loved so much were not above his critical examination. He was troubled by a cold rationalism which threatened to hold it captive. The church’s apathy and its inability to minister to the moral and spiritual needs of eighteenth-century England seriously distressed him. He therefore set out to renew the church he loved, and he was prepared to employ any appropriate material from the whole history of Christianity to do it.

The convictions and piety of the early church fathers impressed Wesley. They were represented in A Christian Library by Clement of Rome, Polycarp of Smyrna and Ignatius of Antioch, all part of a first- and second-century body of Christian literature known as the Apostolic Fathers. Also included was material from Macarius the Egyptian whose understanding of Christianity was formed by Gregory of Nyssa, the great eastern Christian teacher of the fourth century. Through the writings of Macarius, Wesley became acquainted with the treasures of Byzantine spirituality. His concept of Christian perfection as a process owed much to this ancient eastern tradition. Patristics, the study of the lives and writings of the early church fathers, was very important to Wesley.

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