Analytical Theology Applied: John Wesley’s Early Logic of Faith

Abstract

The rise of analytic theology can be a useful tool for bringing precision to theological systems of the past. Wesleyan theology stands to benefit from these trends. This article addresses the development of Wesley’s understanding of faith in the years 1725 and 1730—a formative intellectual time in his life—using analytical theology as a method applied to his correspondence with his mother Susanna and other texts. This article argues that while his theology of faith continued to develop into the later view of trust, the early influence of Fiddes and others (which shaped Wesley’s Aristotelian thinking about knowledge as simple apprehension, judgement, and discourse) would remain an important feature of his theological and epistemological thinking.