That ain't Wesley

Mary Jacobs at the United Methodist Reporter has written a story well-worth reading for anyone who likes to read quotes by John Wesley.

Her story -- "Wesley, mis-quoted" -- explores the tendency for Methodist folk to repeat "quotes" from Wesley that are actually misquotes that have become attached to the Methodist founding figure over time.

My doctoral advisor at Duke University, Richard P. Heitzenrater, is fascinated by this cultural tendency as well. (And Dr. Heitzenrater is one of the people Ms. Jacobs interviewed for her story.) I've seen him get animated talking about misquotes that get repeated time and again without anyone ever wondering where the saying in question came from. As he'll often point out, such sayings don't come from anything Wesley wrote or is recorded as having said. Dr. Heitzenrater is actually writing a book on the subject that I'll be interested to read when it appears.

I've got a misquote to add to the ones catalogued in Ms. Jacobs' article. You'll often read people make comments like, "Wesley spoke to us about personal and social holiness." (In fact, you can read a version of that phrase in this recent op/ed in the United Methodist Reporter from late August.) The only problem? Wesley never used the phrase, "personal and social holiness." And he never would have bifurcated the concept of holiness in the way that people do when they choose to employ the misquote today.

My example is more than a curious historical error as well. It points to a significant problem in the contemporary church's theology of holiness. In fact, I think it's a serious enough issue that I've written an article about it that is going to appear later this fall in Methodist Review. When it comes out, I'll point you to it. Until then, I think we should all agree not to quote Wesley (or anyone else) unless we know the source from which the quote is drawn.

That's just good practice, isn't' it?

[Note: My friend and fellow blogger Kevin Watson wrote about this topic sometime ago. For his first in a series of posts on Wesley misquotes, go to this link.]