John Wesley è stato un teologo inglese che ha fondato il movimento protestante del metodismo.
È commemorato dalla Chiesa anglicana il 3 marzo.
Il metodismo ha avuto tre tappe fondamentali: la prima all'Università di Oxford con la fondazione del cosiddetto Holy Club , la seconda mentre Wesley era curato nella città statunitense di Savannah, in Georgia, e la terza a Londra dopo il ritorno di Wesley in Inghilterra. Il movimento ha preso forma dopo la terza tappa, intorno al 1740 con Wesley, insieme ad altri, istituendo predicatori locali e le società religiose per la formazione dei fedeli. Questo è stato il primo grande movimento evangelicale della Gran Bretagna. L'organizzazione metodista di Wesley includeva società in Inghilterra, Scozia, Galles e Irlanda prima di diffondersi negli altri paesi anglofoni e non solo. Wesley ha diviso le sue società religiose in classi e gruppi per garantire istruzione religiosa e assistenza capillare a tutti, in special modo alle classi povere.
I metodisti, sotto la direzione di Wesley, sono diventati promotori di molte iniziative volte a garantire giustizia sociale, incluso la riforma della legge penale e movimenti abolizionistici. Wesley incentrò le sue riflessioni teologiche e spirituali su quella che chiamò perfezione cristiana, o santità del cuore e della vita. Wesley insisteva sul fatto che in questa vita ogni cristiano può giungere a uno stato dell'anima dove l'amore di Dio, o amore perfetto, regna supremo nel cuore di ogni persona. Insisteva continuamente sull'usare i mezzi di grazia quali preghiera, meditazione delle Scritture, Santa Cena, ecc. come mezzi tramite i quali Dio trasforma i credenti. Wesley a un certo punto della sua vita si staccò dalla chiesa anglicana e riteneva che anche il suo movimento avrebbe dovuto farlo. Wikipedia
“L'umiltà vera è una specie di auto-annullamento; e questo è il centro di tutte le virtù.”
Origine: Citato in Paul Clavier, Edmondo Coccia, Lessico dei valori morali, Armando Editore, Roma, 2008, p. 321 http://books.google.it/books?id=XV4QPeqDgcUC&pg=PA321. ISBN 978-88-6081-294-0
Origine: Citato in Amadeus Voldben, La potenza del credere e la gioia d'amare, Edizioni Mediterranee, Roma, 1992, p. 194 http://books.google.it/books?id=0ckzXVBcNs0C&pg=PA194. ISBN 88-272-0040-1
Origine: Citato in Steven Rosen, Il vegetarianesimo e le religioni del mondo, traduzione di Giulia Amici, Gruppo Futura – Jackson Libri, Bresso, 1995, p. 128. ISBN 88-256-0826-8
Origine: Da Il vero cristianesimo in parole semplici (A Plain Account of Genuine Christianity); citato in Armstrong 1995, p. 336.
“Sono andato in America per convertire gli indiani; ma, ah, chi convertirà me?”
Origine: Dal diario; citato in Armstrong 1995, p. 337.
Origine: Da Writings, a cura di A.C. Outler; citato in Armstrong 1995, p. 337.
Origine: I believe in my heart that faith in Jesus Christ can and will lead us beyond an exclusive concern for the well-being of other human beings to a broader concern for the well-being of the birds in our backyards, the fish in our rivers, and every living creature on the face of the earth. (citato in J. R. Hyland, God's Covenant with Animals, Lantern Books, 2004, p. XII http://books.google.it/books?id=nRMxniy-eKoC&pg=PR12. ISBN 1-930051-15-8)
“Non ho tempo per avere fretta.”
Origine: Citato in Gianluca Gambirasio, Mille aforismi e citazioni ad uso aziendale e non solo, Olympos, 2009, § 646 http://books.google.it/books?id=Bzrg4bmGxIQC&pg=PA66. ISBN 978-88-904685-0-6
“God grant that I may never live to be useless!”
Origine: How To Pray: The Best of John Wesley on Prayer
Origine: How To Pray: The Best of John Wesley on Prayer
“I am always in haste, but never in a hurry.”
As quoted in the "Saturday Review" (28 November 1874)
General sources
Origine: John Wesley's Sermons: An Anthology
As quoted in England in the Eighteenth Century (1714 - 1815) (1964) by J. H. Plumb, p. 94
General sources
Letter to Charles Wesley
General sources
Nehemiah Curnock, ed., 'The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M.', London, Charles H. Kelly, vol. 5, p. 265 https://archive.org/stream/a613690405wesluoft#page/265/mode/1up (entry of 25 May 1768) <br class="br">General sources
“The Church recruited people who had been starched and ironed before they were washed.”
John Wesley Lord, as quoted in TIME magazine (1 February 1963)
Misattributed
Letter to a Roman Catholic, July 18, 1749, The works of the Rev. John Wesley (1872), London, Wesleyan Conference Office, vol. X, p. 81. https://books.google.com/books?id=TZBKAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA81&dq=%22continued+a+pure+and+unspotted+virgin%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjn7srt5I_NAhUUU1IKHUlzC-AQ6AEIUTAH#v=onepage&q=%22continued%20a%20pure%20and%20unspotted%20virgin%22&f=false <br class="br">General sources
Wesley quoting his own sermon on "The Circumcision of the Heart" (1 January 1733) in the work A Plain Account Of Christian Perfection (Edition of 1777)
General sources
Letter to a Roman Catholic Priest, published in his Journal for 27 August 1739 http://books.google.com/books?id=TylXAAAAIAAJ&q=%22+published+in+his+Journal+for+27+August+1739%22&dq=%22+published+in+his+Journal+for+27+August+1739%22&hl=en&ei=ggg-TMSKNcL6lwfw3cj3BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CC8Q6wEwAA. <br class="br">In, The works of the Rev. John Wesley, A. M., London, Wesleyan Conference Office, 1872, vol. 1, p. 220. http://books.google.com/books?id=Eo9KAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA220&dq=%22+I+can+by+no+means+approve+the+scurrility+and+contempt+with+which+the+Romanists%22&hl=en&ei=iwM-TOq7OcP7lwfr6Kz5BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDkQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22%20I%20can%20by%20no%20means%20approve%20the%20scurrility%20and%20contempt%20with%20which%20the%20Romanists%22&f=false http://wesley.nnu.edu/John_Wesley/letters/1739.htm <br class="br">General sources
Sermon 37 "The Nature of Enthusiasm"
Sermons on Several Occasions (1771)
“Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?”
Attributed to Wesley in The English Poets: Addison to Blake (1880) by Thomas Humphry Ward, it also sometimes attributed to his brother Charles Wesley, and appears even earlier attributed to George Whitefield, in The Monthly Review, or, Literary Journal, Vol. 49 (June 1773 - January 1774), p. 430; this has also been reported as a remark made by Rowland Hill, when he arranged an Easter hymn to the tune of "Pretty, Pretty Polly Hopkins, in The Rambler, Vol. 9 (1858), p. 191; as well as to William Booth, who popularized it as an addage in promoting The Salvation Army.
Disputed
“Lord, let me not live to be useless!”
Journal (22 December 1763)
General sources
Sermons on Several Occasions (1771) <br class="br">Origine: Sermon 37 "The Nature of Enthusiasm" http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/sermons.v.xxxvii.html
“God buries his workmen, but carries on his work.”
Charles Wesley, as quoted in Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature (1889). This appears with two quotes of John Wesley on the monument to both men in Westminster Abbey, and is commonly attributed to John.
Misattributed
“You may be as orthodox as the devil and as wicked.”
This may be a paraphrase or summary of Wesley's thoughts that originated with Hugh Price Hughes; in his preface to Ethical Christianity : A Series of Sermons (1892) he states "It is really quite surpising that one could honestly confound Orthodoxy with Christianity, because, as John Wesley used to say in his emphatic and decisive manner, you may be as orthodox as the devil and as wicked." He does not place the statement itself in quotes, though his daughter, Dorothea Price Hughes, in her book The Life of Hugh Price Hughes (1904), p. 146, states "The saying of Wesley's that a man may be as orthodox as the devil and as wicked, was one in which he delighted, and which he often quoted." No published sources of the statement prior to 1892 have yet been located.
Disputed
Reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 285
General sources
A Survey of the Wisdom of God in the Creation; Or A Compendium of Natural Philosophy New York: Bangs and T. Mason, 1823, Part the Second, Chapter I, volume 1, pages 147-148. Wesley Center Online http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/a-compendium-of-natural-philosophy/chapter-1-of-beasts/ <br class="br">General sources
“In all cases, the Church is to be judged by the Scripture, not the Scripture by the Church.”
Popery Calmly Considered (1779): The works of the Rev. John Wesley, 1812, London : Printed at the Conference - Office … by Thomas Cordeux, agent, vol. XV http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC09022224&id=CZEPAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA180&lpg=PA177&dq=%22popery+calmly+considered%22, p. 180 - Google Books <br class="br">General sources
Journal entry (1 August 1777), published in The Journal of the Rev. John Wesley (1827), p. 104
General sources
As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts : Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, both Ancient and Modern (1908) by Tyron Edwards, p. 127
General sources
“Every one, though born of God in an instant, yet undoubtedly grows by slow degrees.”
Letter (27 June 1760), published in The Works of the Rev. John Wesley (1813) Vol. XVI, p. 109
As quoted in an 1856 edition of Works
General sources
Variante: Every one, though born of God in an instant, yea, and sanctified in an instant, yet undoubtedly grows by slow degrees.
Origine: A Plain Account of Christian Perfection (1766)
