Thomas C. Oden, Doctrinal Standards in the Wesleyan Tradition, rev. ed. (Nashville: Abingdon, 2008), vii + 293 Pps., $19.99.
Thomas Oden is Henry Anson Buttz Professor Emiritus of Theology and Ethics at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. In this volume, Oden narrates the formation of Wesleyan (he uses the term Wesleyan throughout this text not to refer to the particular denomination, but to the larger movement of churches spawned from Wesley’s influence) doctrines within the precursors to the United Methodist Church, describing how they were transplanted from Britain to North America, and how they became constitutionally protected within the Wesleyan-rooted churches. This revised edition of the original text, first published in 1976, addresses the growing hunger for information regarding the doctrinal traditions of mainline Protestantism. A little while ago, Abingdon Press approached Oden, requesting him to revise and republish it prior to the 2008 General Conference of the United Methodist Church. He agreed to do so, and more than four hundred changes find their way into this updated volume.
Herein, Oden lays out compelling reasons why John Wesley’s Sermons and Notes upon the New Testament were considered the doctrinal standards, or distinctives, of the United Methodist Church (UMC) by its general conference in 1968. Doctrinal standards, Oden reminds us, serve as authoritative guides, dependable sources to rely upon during controversy, as a source by which truth is transmitted, a regulating influence on the teaching of the church, a unitive factor within the church, and as a defense against abuses by people in leadership within the church. The doctrinal standards were first protected against amendment by the precursors of the UMC in 1808. Two hundred years later, the UMC is assessing the plausibility and future credibility of that continuity. This book tells the story of their original purpose and their continuing defense. This book deals with the ongoing issue of defining the core of Christian faith that remain profoundly important to many UMC members. In its presentation of major historical sources and phases of doctrinal development within American Methodism, it is straightforward and factual.
The text is divided broadly into two parts: part one expresses why the doctrinal standards have again become a matter of intense debate amongst the Wesleyan ‘family’ as a whole, and within the UMC in particular, whereas part two analyzes the key doctrinal documents of the Wesleyan tradition. More pointedly, chapter one explores the historic roots of the contemporary debate, indicating along the way how the doctrinal standards were first formed. Chapter two describes how the Wesleyan doctrinal standards were transplanted to North America in 1785-1808. Chapter four describes the process of them being constitutionally protected in 1808, whereas chapter five explores continuing issues of the Wesleyan doctrinal standards, including pluralism, enforcement of the standards, distinctions between the sources for the standards, as well as questions of apostasy and schism.
Part two begins with chapter six, which serves as a bridge between the history of the standards and the contemporary varieties of doctrinal formulation within the wider Wesleyan tradition. More precisely, it introduces key themes of Wesley’s Standard Sermons, it clarifies the documentary history of the Articles of Religion, and it displays how the Notes upon the New Testament have uniquely functioned within the tradition. Chapter seven includes the doctrinal statements of the Evangelical United Brethren, the Free Methodist, the Methodist Protestant, the Wesleyan, Nazarene, and African Methodist Episcopal churches. Oden does not attempt an exhaustive survey of the doctrinal texts of the various Wesleyan-related communions since 1988. He does, however, update the doctrinal sections in the Disciplines from 1988 to present. The book concludes with an outline of a lay study course on the Methodist Articles of Religion.
One could say, then, that the book begins by focusing acutely on the American Methodist tradition, and then broadens to include the worldwide Wesleyan-related communion of churches. Oden contends that his purpose is to show how the Wesleyan standards were originally derived, how they functioned through varying Wesleyan traditions, and how they might be reappropriated for instructional usage today. For those who possess interests in the Wesleyan tradition, particularly its formation of doctrine, I highly recommend the perusal of this title. One will find herein a virtual plethora of useful information regarding the historical formation and usage of the doctrinal standards within the Wesleyan family, something of which the Wesleyan tradition would do well to remember in today’s religiously plural environment.
Bradford McCall
Regent University, Virginia Beach, VA