The Limits of a Catholic Spirit: John Wesley, Methodism, and Catholicism
The Limits of a Catholic Spirit fills the gap that is John Wesley and Catholicism. No other book has provided such an in-depth study of the perils Wesley faced when he encountered Catholicism. With the use of rare primary sources that tell of anti-Methodist riots in Ireland to Wesley's preachers getting kidnapped and forced to serve in the army, this study will provide you with historical information you've never encountered. It will explore questions that have held Wesley scholars captive for decades. Was John Wesley responsible for sparking the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780 in London? Kelly Diehl Yates searched eighteenth-century documents in the National Archives of the United Kingdom to find out. Was John Wesley aligned with the Jesuits? Was John Wesley a Jacobite, an enemy of the British Crown? Did John Wesley require Irish Catholics to denounce Catholicism to join Methodist societies? By the end of The Limits of a Catholic Spirit, you'll find answers to all these questions and more.
“By providing the first book-length historical study of John
Wesley and Catholicism, Yates has broken new ground. This balanced
study shows convincingly that Wesley paradoxically put into
practice his ideal of a catholic spirit yet was also a purveyor of
popular anti-Catholicism. For anyone interested in Wesley,
Methodism, Catholicism, and ecumenical relations, this is both an
essential and rewarding read.”
—Geordan Hammond, Director of the Manchester Wesley Research
Centre, Nazarene Theological College, Manchester, UK
“In this carefully argued and engaging work, Yates not only shows
that the sermon ‘Catholic Spirit’ was never intended for easing
relations with Roman Catholics themselves but also that Letter
to a Roman Catholic was drafted by and large to win their trust
so that they would be then open to evangelical conversion. Beyond
this, in opposing the lifting of the penal laws, John Wesley’s
deeply embedded anti-Catholicism remained despite
twenty-first-century revisionist attempts to tidy things up.”
—Kenneth J. Collins, Professor of Historical Theology and Wesley
Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary
“Yates presents a balanced historical investigation of a neglected
subject, John Wesley’s troubled relationship with Roman
Catholicism. She shows how Wesley’s devotion to the early fathers,
to primitive church discipline, and to his life-long Arminianism
led to recurring but misplaced charges of ‘popery’ and ‘Jesuitism’
by Anglican and Calvinist critics, compounded by misguided
perceptions of Jacobite sympathies. She explores the nature and
basis of Wesley’s enduring anti-Catholic proclivities, exemplified
in his writings and experiences in Ireland, while doing full
justice to his admiration for Roman Catholic devotional literature.
She explains how this spiritual irenicism coexisted with his
doctrinal and political anti-Catholicism. The end result is a
coherent and measured analysis of the subtle complexities and
tensions in Wesley’s thought and practice.”
—Peter Nockles, Honorary Research Fellow, University of
Manchester
“A careful and judicious examination of John Wesley’s ‘catholic
spirit.’ Steering a middle course between the Scylla of
anachronistic ecumenism and Charybdis of anti-Catholic
fundamentalism, Yates’s contribution to Methodist scholarship is
essential reading.”
—Joel Houston, Assistant Professor of Theology, Briercrest College
and Seminary
“By providing the first book-length historical study of John
Wesley and Catholicism, Yates has broken new ground. This balanced
study shows convincingly that Wesley paradoxically put into
practice his ideal of a catholic spirit yet was also a purveyor of
popular anti-Catholicism. For anyone interested in Wesley,
Methodism, Catholicism, and ecumenical relations, this is both an
essential and rewarding read.”
—Geordan Hammond, Director of the Manchester Wesley Research
Centre, Nazarene Theological College, Manchester, UK
“In this carefully argued and engaging work, Yates not only shows
that the sermon ‘Catholic Spirit’ was never intended for easing
relations with Roman Catholics themselves but also that Letter
to a Roman Catholic was drafted by and large to win their trust
so that they would be then open to evangelical conversion. Beyond
this, in opposing the lifting of the penal laws, John Wesley’s
deeply embedded anti-Catholicism remained despite
twenty-first-century revisionist attempts to tidy things up.”
—Kenneth J. Collins, Professor of Historical Theology and Wesley
Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary
“Yates presents a balanced historical investigation of a neglected
subject, John Wesley’s troubled relationship with Roman
Catholicism. She shows how Wesley’s devotion to the early fathers,
to primitive church discipline, and to his life-long Arminianism
led to recurring but misplaced charges of ‘popery’ and ‘Jesuitism’
by Anglican and Calvinist critics, compounded by misguided
perceptions of Jacobite sympathies. She explores the nature and
basis of Wesley’s enduring anti-Catholic proclivities, exemplified
in his writings and experiences in Ireland, while doing full
justice to his admiration for Roman Catholic devotional literature.
She explains how this spiritual irenicism coexisted with his
doctrinal and political anti-Catholicism. The end result is a
coherent and measured analysis of the subtle complexities and
tensions in Wesley’s thought and practice.”
—Peter Nockles, Honorary Research Fellow, University of
Manchester
“A careful and judicious examination of John Wesley’s ‘catholic
spirit.’ Steering a middle course between the Scylla of
anachronistic ecumenism and Charybdis of anti-Catholic
fundamentalism, Yates’s contribution to Methodist scholarship is
essential reading.”
—Joel Houston, Assistant Professor of Theology, Briercrest College
and Seminary
- Title: The Limits of a Catholic Spirit: John Wesley, Methodism, and Catholicism
- Authors: Kelly Diehl Yates, Howard A. Snyder
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2022
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781725269491, 9781725269477, 9781725269484, 172526949X, 1725269473, 1725269481
- Resource ID: LLS:9781725269491
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T20:23:19Z
Kelly Diehl Yates is the founder and director of the Walt Crow Center, a retreat center for pastors in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She teaches for Southern Nazarene University, Northwest Nazarene University, and Indiana Wesleyan University.