Wesleyan Quadrangle- Reason, Faith, Experience, Tradition.

1. Romans 2:14-15. Reason to truth: As we shall see, mere loving of truth, in the abstract, is not the point.
2.  

3. What is sin…

1. From Greek thought, generally speaking matter was bad, spirit was good. So the human man was evil. Soteriological misconceptions have arisen from this basically Platonic conception of man; salvation is escape from this body of sin.

2.  Rather sin is something wrong with the whole of man.

 
    The Hebrew/Christian concept is completely different. Man is a unity, not a union of parts. Sin is something wrong with the whole man, not just his body or human nature. Salvation is the redemption of the whole man, lifting his entire being into the orbit of grace. The body is not sin-bearing but essentially good. Sin is not a substance but rebellion.
    Deriving from this is the substance concept of reality and salvation in contrast to the relational or religious concept. Follow­ing logically from the dualism in Platonic philosophy,. sin is in terpreted genetically-an evil inhering in the flesh and propagated as the physical body is propagated. Great concern is given to the substance of the soul. Sin is in that substance, sub-rational, essen­tial to humanity, real. If it be granted that sin can be removed, in the Greek way of thinking a virtual operation would be required removing, quite literally, something. Then the debate about the sin of mankind, and freedom from it, is conducted in a framework of thought foreign to the Bible.
    This stands in direct contradiction to the Hebrew/ Christian interpretation. In Hebrew thinking, sin is always a religious "mal­function." It is a wrong relation to God. It is rebellion on the part of responsible manhood. It is alienation, a moral disorder…. The inadequacy-even danger-of the above positions lies exposed in the next logical step, It is the contrast between the^­ magical versus moral interpretation of salvation. This means that a sub-rational, psychological mutation defines cleansing from sin. The problem here is that men come to expect a substance altera­tion of the soul in salvation which occurs below the level of rational life and which, apart from personal involvement, changes the impulsive reactions of the self. Anger and pride and all other normal human emotional equipment is said to be removed, so that responsibility for discipline and proper channeling of the emotions is considered a suppression which denies what God ought to do.
    The moral interpretation stresses the full participation of the self in every step in grace, strengthening rather than weakening moral integrity and taking responsibility for the ordering of all human impulse and powers around a central and controlling love, Nothing human is despised or rejected but made to serve a new master.

 A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism, Mildred Bangs Wynkoop. P. 49-50

Dualism and Trichotomy… Militate. To have force or influence; bring about an effect or a change

Compatibilist and Libertarian views of freedom…

a.        Ability, control, and rationality conditions of freedom.

b.       Efficient and final causes.

c.        Compatibilist- Belief/Desire Psychology- Freedom presupposes rationality in that if an action is not caused by a belief/desire set then it would be random, not the sort of thing that one could be responsible for. New Testament commands are not real commands to believe but function to make clear what the heart already knows. Efficient Cause.

d.       Libertarian- Deliberation (debating reasons for or against certain actions or beliefs.)- Rationality presupposes freedom. New Testament commands people to believe and holds them accountable for their choices; which in turn requires some form of doxastic volunteerism to be true. Final cause.

1.        Direct doxastic volunteerism-An agent directly chooses by act of will what to believe.

2.        Indirect doxastic volunteerism- An agent’s beliefs/desires are formed by process of deliberation.

e.        Akrasia- Weakness of will.

1.        Libertarians believe akrasia is a real phenomenon wherein persons fail to act according to their beliefs and even desires.

2.        Compatibilists believe actions are always caused by the strongest belief/desire state in the person; in this sense there is no akrasia. 

3a. Agape, however, is a completely different dimension of love. It is a quality of a person rather than a different kind of love. It is a principle by which one orders life-or by which life is ordered. Out of it all the relationships of life derive their character. It is not a new, infused ability but a personal orientation reaching first to God and then, by necessity, to all other persons and things in life. It is called Christian love-and indeed it is unique in its full­ness in Christ. It is not first of all an emotion but a deliberate policy whereby the relations sustained with other persons are kept in balance by one's deliberate orientation to God and his own self ­respect-in the right sense, self-love.

Our first introduction to this kind of love in the New Testa­ment is in the troublesome passage in Matt. 5:48, " Be ... perfect, even as your Father . . . in heaven is perfect." The tendency is to assume this kind of perfection must belong to another life because, as we say, Who can be as perfect as God?" But a more careful reading of the context shows that it is in God's "Fatherness" that agape love is revealed, not in the absolute perfection of God. The old law protected justice by the "eye for an eye" principle of retri­bution. This was a vast advance over the "tooth and claw" philos­ophy. The moral law said one should love his neighbor. This the Jews well knew. Now Jesus raises the "law" to its zenith-love for one's enemy. Failure to keep the distinctions in love in mind has, caused many sincere people to draw back from that impossible standard. But Jesus did not leave us with an empty idealism. The pattern of that love is the way the Heavenly Father sends all the advantages of rain and sun and all other needful things on all men, good and not good, thankful and unthankful, obedient and dis­obedient. And this is the best definition of agape to be found-­impartial goodwill.
    The love which we call Christian love, then, is not a substitute for the other loves, nor is it an addition to those loves, but it is a quality of the entire person as it is centered in Christ.

A Theology of Love: The Dynamic of Wesleyanism, Mildred Bangs Wynkoop. P. 33

3.        Revelation 2:1-7. Loving ‘truth’ in the abstract can divorce us from the author of truth fracturing reason in that the experience of truth in relationship with the author is forsaken for self-defined truth, a delusion. The Ephesians had part of it right, yet the experience part was left out of the quadrangle.

Every abstract word is hollow until we pour life into it. Honor, glory, sacrifice, loyalty, love, joy, peace, courage and endurance, faith and faithfulness, democracy and brotherhood, justice and mercy-what are these? Words. Abstract words. Hol­low words-until we fill them with deeds, with life, and hence with meaning....

The great words of the Christian faith-grace, forgiveness, redemption, faith, hope and love-are all hollow words until we pour our Christian experience into them.

J. Wesley Ingles, “Hollow Words” Christianity Today (Oct. 27, 1958)