Doctinal and Controversial Treatises

The first of three theological volumes, this volume is devoted to four of John Wesley's foundational treatises on soteriology.

These treatises include, first, Wesley’s extract from the Homilies of the Church of England, which he published to convince his fellow Anglican clergy that the ‘evangelical’ emphasis on believers experiencing a conscious assurance of God’s pardoning love was consistent with this standard of Anglican doctrine. Next comes Wesley’s extract of Richard Baxter’s Aphorisms of Justification, aimed more at those who shared his evangelical emphasis, invoking this honored moderate Puritan to challenge antinomian conceptions of the doctrine of justification by faith. This is followed by Wesley’s abridgement of the Shorter Catechism issued by the Westminster Assembly in his Christian Library, where he affirms broad areas of agreement with this standard of Reformed doctrine―while quietly removing items with which he disagreed. The fourth item is Wesley’s extended response to the Dissenter John Taylor on the doctrine of original sin, which highlights differences within the broad ‘Arminian’ camp, with Wesley resisting a drift toward naively optimistic views of human nature that he discerned in Taylor.


All Works of John Wesley volumes are designed to keep the pages clean and in place for years to come., with casebound non-cloth hardcover, dust jacket, and secure adhesive binding.

William B. Lawrence is dean and professor of American Church History at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University (Dallas), where he has served since 2002. Dr. Lawrence is an ordained elder in the North Texas Annual Conference. He is the author of Sundays in New York and Methodism in Recovery, and he has co-edited numerous books, including Connectionalism: Ecclesiology, Mission and Identity</

Randy L. Maddox is William Kellon Quick Professor Emeritus of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC, and general editor of the Bicentennial Edition of The Works of John Wesley.