The almost mystic : John Wesley's editing of the Spanish Mystics, Juan de Avila and Miguel de Molinos, in his Christian library

Abstract

John Wesley, 18ᵗʰ Century Church of England priest and founder of Methodism, was strongly influenced by the works of Roman Catholic Mystics early in his ministry. These writings helped shape his widely known doctrine of Christian perfection or entire sanctification. The mystics inspired Wesley to advocate for a lofty spiritual goal which he believed to be attainable in this life. In time, however, he developed many contentions with some extremes as well as many particulars found in the mystical tradition. Beginning in 1749, Wesley began to publish his Christian Library—a fifty- volume compilation of abridged works which he believed to be among the best writings on divinity that had been published in the English language. Among this vast collection, he included three works originally written in the Spanish language. One was a biography titled, The Holy Life of Gregory Lopez, the others included a sampling of letters by Juan de Ávila and the Spiritual Guide by Miguel de Molinos. This thesis examines Wesley’s editing of the non-biographical works by Ávila and Molinos as a way of evaluating Wesley’s theology in comparison and contrast with the Spanish Mystics. The original 17ᵗʰ Century English publications of both works were compared side-by-side with Wesley’s edited versions. Wesley’s alterations were carefully noted and categorized by topic. The available corpuses of each of these authors were then consulted to examine their respective theological perspectives. A comparative study ensued. The themes to which Wesley made alterations include theological authority, self- knowledge and epistemology, soteriology, spiritual growth, suffering and divine withdrawal, prayer, meditation, contemplation, mystical language, and the spiritual climax or telos. The chapters are arranged topically to address these themes. Each chapter draws from Ávila’s body of writings to examine his perspective on the theme, followed by Wesley’s editing of Ávila on that topic, then looks at Molinos’ understanding of the idea recorded in his works, followed by Wesley’s editing of Molinos on the matter, then explores Wesley’s views on the subject found in his broader corpus, and concludes with a comparative study of the preceding.