Description: The theology of Charles Wesley is expressed primarily in hymns and sacred poems-that is, in a literary and liturgical form of art. Wesley's theological concerns, as seen through his hymns and poems, include inquiries into the meaning of the church's sacred rites, festivals, and seasons (Holy Communion, Baptism, Advent, Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost), and a host of other theological concerns, such as conversion, sanctification, perfection, holiness, grace, and love. These theological concerns are spread throughout his repertory of over 9,000 hymns and poems. There are...

This volume is the first attempt to explore Charles Wesley's understanding of ""participation in the divine nature,"" often described by the church fathers as deification and/or theosis, within the full spectrum of his prose and poetical compositions and in relation to many of the church fathers. While the Eastern Church has been the primary harbinger of the doctrine of deification from the patristic era to the present, Charles Wesley's theology illustrates that this emphasis is by no means absent in the West. Though patristic influences on Charles Wesley's thought are primarily through...