Author: Maddox, Randy L.

Journal of Psychology & Christianity, Vol. 23(2), Sum 2004, pp. 101-109

Abstract:

Psychology began to emerge as a distinct discipline at about the same time that John Wesley was developing his mature understanding of the dynamics of Christian life. This essay opens with an account of Wesley’s engagement with this emergent psychology and its impact on his understanding of Christian spirituality, including his distinctive conception of Christian perfection. Attention then turns to tracing the continuing engagement of Wesleyan theologians with psychology, noting both where they resisted developments in the discipline and where their appropriation of psychological models reshaped their own assumptions about spirituality The essay closes with some proposals For exploration in the recent renewal of explicit engagement between Wesleyan theology and psychology.