Can John Wesley's theology keep the Methodists united?

“If we do not yet think alike, we may at least love alike,” wrote John Wesley. David N. Field’s careful and accessible study of what it means to love alike arrives in a time of tumult as the United Methodist Church struggles to resolve a decades-long conflict about LGBTQ ordination and same-sex marriage. Many United Methodists long for a resolution that holds the church together and is spiritually livable, even spiritually liberating, for all involved. Field is one of the 32 people charged with envisioning possible UMC futures through the Com­mission on a Way Forward in advance of the February 2019 special General Conference.

In this book, however, Field says little directly about the debate on LGBTQ inclusion and human sexuality. Instead, he mines Wesley’s writings to ask a more general question: whether and how Chris­tians might maintain a spirit of unity despite sharp internal disagreements within the church. Field draws heavily from Wesley’s sermons “Catholic Spirit” (1749) and “A Caution against Bigotry” (1750), but he also incorporates an array of Wesleyan writings on ecclesial unity. He is less interested in the pragmatics of a possible polity restructure (the decision) than he is in the spiritual work of unity and holiness (the process). How do we hold ourselves in right relation to those in the church with whom we profoundly (and perhaps permanently) disagree?

According to Field’s reading of Wes­ley, being in community with people with whom we have fundamental theological disagreements can provide a vital means of grace, a path to grow in faith and inner holiness as we learn to love those we find difficult. Field quotes Wesley: “orthodoxy or right opinions is at best but a very slender part of religion, if it can be allowed to be any part of it at all.”