ABSTRACT <박사학위 논문 영문 요약>

 

 ABSTRACT

    This thesis focuses on John Wesley's understanding of the Holy Spirit. The essence of John Wesley's Theology is the understanding of Spirituality which is the fulfillment of God's salvation. The Holy Spirit is not only the assurance of the salvation as a gift from God, but also He is the fulfillment of the salvation itself. I believe that it is the very reason why the Wesley's doctrine of the Holy Spirit is to be the most important idea of the Christian theological history.  

        John Wesley was an evangelist during the eighteenth century in England. He also was a revolutionary of the age with the Christian love. It was possible, because he was a man of piety and practiced throughout his whole life. There are three vivid points of John Wesley`s Spirituality. The first one is his understanding of Trinity,  the other is his faith of myth, and the last one is to be his spiritual experience. His understanding of the Trinity is the basis of his faith, and also the mythic faith is the foundation of his piety live. Furthermore, his spiritual experiences is the encountering event between God and man dramatically. 

        The main concern of John Wesley was Human salvation. He considered the need, possibility, and the assurance of human salvation. That's why he followed the way of the truth seeker. He started with the mythic faith at the beginning, but he later adjusted that notion with the idea of sanctification through the Holy Spirit.   

        According to John Wesley, salvation is the encounter between God and man through the Holy Spirit. I argue that point in this thesis.

        The being of God is presented clearly through the 'agape' which comes from God, and the being of man is the love of 'eros' for God. Therefore, salvation is the event of encounter between the God who is coming to man and the man who is seeking God.

        And the spiritual experience is the field of man could see God in his life. Therefore, I can say that Wesley's idea of salvation could be understood through the Spirituality.  

        Those heroes of the period of Reformation; Luther, Calvin, and Wesley were based on the same understanding of faith, Grace, and the Bible. But, their ideas of salvation are different from others; Luther insisted Christ centered the salvation theory while Calvin focused on the predestination by God, but Wesley argued about the salvation by the Spirit. Wesley interpreted God's love and Grace more widely than Luther's. He understood the grace as not only a forgiving, but also as a changing for the future of man's life. He believed that God gave his love to all people not to the few selected. Therefore, the focus of the Wesley's theology is salvation, encountering between God and man. And also the Holy Spirit is the channel of the encountering. The Holy Spirit is the power of God to change human life and of new creation for the purpose of holiness to fulfillment of love. The Holy Spirit is the propaganda of the salvation through the Spirit himself with the human spirit.

        

        This thesis is consisted with eight chapters. In the first chapter, I described the history of Wesley study and my concerning. I also introduced my methodology, words, and principles.   

        In the second chapter, I mentioned Wesley's four principles, which are Bible, Reason, Tradition and Experience. Wesley added the experience theory to the Anglican Church's other three principles.  

I believe that it is very important in the aspect of the Spirituality.

Wesleyan theology stands on the Bible at first. And also, Wesley accepts Reason and Religion, naturally. Therefore, he tried to seek the truth reasonably. Furthermore, Wesley accepted the tradition of the early church and of the Anglican Church. He adapted some spiritual ideas from Catholicism, Puritanism, and from the Eastern Orthodox Church. However, Wesley added the idea of the spiritual experiences to those three ideas. It is important in the church history.

        In chapter three, I described the historical background of Wesley's idea of the Holy Spirit. It is connected to the salvation theory. It would be understood in the structure of 'God finds man, man seeks God,' which is back grounded of the Trinity, mythic, and experience of the Spirit. 

        The theology of the trinity God is the foundation theory of God's coming and the mythic faith is the ideal goal of man's expectation of salvation. When they turn away from each other, the salvation is not fulfilled. When a part meet solemnly, it would not be a real encountering. Therefore, encountering structure is the spiritual understanding of John Wesley on the work of Holy Spirit.

        The spiritual experience is an event of the encountering between the Trinity God and man. I believe that Wesley experienced the coming of God and man's spiritual experience.

        In chapter four, I described that the Holy Spirit is the essence of the salvation. The Spirit works to fulfill the encountering God and man. The Holy Spirit is the intercessor and the connection point between God and man.

        Those two important themes of Wesleyan theology are Grace and Responsibility. The Grace is the ｅxpression of God's coming to man and the responsibility is the ｅxpression of man's seeking to God. And the salvation is the encountering between God and man. The Holy spirit works for the occurrence of Salvation realization. Therefore, it is the essence of the Wesleyan salvation theory that there is no salvation without the work of the Holy Spirit.

        In chapter five, I argued about the new creation by the Holy Spirit. According to the Wesley's understanding on the Holy Spirit, it is the Spirit of new creation. It is different from Luther's understanding on the interpretation of Grace. Luther understood the Grace lawfully, which is to be forgiveness. However, Wesley understood the salvation more dynamically, which is revolutionary and experiential event.

        The Luther's salvation theory is understood as the only recognizing of justification. However, according to Wesley's understanding, it is an event of righteousness and justification. Luther understood that the justification is the salvation, however, Wesley thought that the justification is the starting point of salvation. Wesley argued the sanctification is the fulfillment of the salvation of God.

        Therefore, Wesley understood God's coming as a change and also understood man's repentance as the real cleaning of their sin. The Holy Spirit works in man's inner life to change. According to Wesley, the Holy Spirit is understood as the spirit of new creation.

        In chapter six, I described the revolution theory of Love which is the essence of Wesley's holiness and sanctification theology. The sanctification of Wesley's idea is a process of holiness, and the holiness is the fruit of the sanctification. Wesley argued that the new creation form as a practice of love. Love is the essence of Wesley's theology. The love is fulfilled personally, or socially. But, the personal salvation and new creation is Wesley's basic theology. However, the foundation of love is God's love. Then, the result of God's Love is to bring love to man. Therefore, when we speak about God's love which is regarded as the primitive love, man's love is only regarded as a reactionary love.

        The God's love is 'agape' as the primitive love and the man's love is an 'eros' which is the fruit of God`s love. It is the fulfillment of the salvation that those two love encounter in the Holy Spirit.

        In the seventh chapter, I described Wesley's understanding of the work of Revelation of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the spirit of revelation. Revelation means to uncover. The Holy Spirit is the revealer, who transmits the light of Grace toward man through the Prevenient Grace. And also, after the Holy Spirit fulfills the salvation He shows God's love through the fruits of the love. Furthermore, when they experienced the salvation as the gift of God, the Holy Spirit announces the salvation spiritually. Therefore, the Holy Spirit is the spirit of revelation of salvation.  

        In chapter eight, I summarized my arguments and concluded that the Wesley's theology is the theology of Holy Spirit and  Wesley's salvation theory is centered around the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, I concluded that Wesley's theological understanding of the Holy Spirit is the person who leads the encounter between God and man for the fulfillment of salvation of God. I focused on Wesley with a spiritual eye. According to Wesley, the Holy Spirit is God who fulfills the man's salvation. He understood the Holy Spirit as the contacting point of encountering God and man, the recreative changer, the person who is practicing love, and the revealer of salvation of God.

        I regret that I could not finish my study of the relations between the Wesleyan theology and the Pentecosts' theological understanding in the field of the Holy Spirit. I hope to study more regarding of the Wesley's understanding of the Spiritual gift.