Download e-book for kindle: Partakers of the Life Divine: Participation in the Divine by S T Jr. Kimbrough,Peter Bouteneff

This quantity is the 1st try to discover Charles Wesley's figuring out of "participation within the divine nature," usually defined via the church fathers as deification and/or theosis, in the complete spectrum of his prose and poetical compositions and in terms of a number of the church fathers. whereas the jap Church has been the first harbinger of the doctrine of deification from the patristic period to the current, Charles Wesley's theology illustrates that this emphasis is in no way absent within the West.
Though patristic affects on Charles Wesley's concept are basically via secondary assets equivalent to the writings of Lancelot Andrewes and Richard Hooker, in addition to throughout the impact of his brother John, this quantity underscores famous resonances with the church fathers. the level of those resonances in Charles's theology as regards "participation within the divine nature" is so common in his writings that they shape the matrix of his principles of salvation, perfection, and holiness, all of that are in detail certain with lifestyles lived in and during the Eucharist.
If taken heavily, Charles Wesley's principles on "participation within the divine nature" would require a rethinking of the position of Wesleyan theology in non secular formation and in ecumenical conversation.

"This quantity is the fruit of many years of labor by way of S T Kimbrough Jr. to deliver critical attention of Charles Wesley's theology into the dialog among jap and Western theologians over the topics of deification and participation within the divine nature. It offers a entire survey of Wesley on those themes, and advances the dialogue at a number of issues. hugely recommended!"
--Randy L. Maddox, William Kellon fast Professor of Wesleyan and Methodist stories, The Divinity college, Duke University

"S T Kimbrough Jr. demonstrates exhaustively that mystical, sacramental union with God and participation within the divine nature is on the middle of Charles Wesley's suggestion and event, parallel to the Fathers of the jap Church. This contrasts starkly with winning Protestant interpretations of Wesleyan proposal. For Orthodox readers, the truth that Wesley's realizing used to be formed fullyyt outdoors the bounds of the jap Church might be comparable to the apostle Peter's discovery that Gentiles can have an analogous adventure of the Holy Spirit because the Jerusalem group did on Pentecost. Charles Wesley may possibly therefore be a bridge of shared non secular lifestyles, having a look towards the endless day of God's everlasting country, while 'Love, like demise, hath all destroyed / Rendered all differences void: / Names, and sects, and events fall; / Thou, O Christ, paintings ALL in ALL!"
--John A. Jillions, Chancellor Orthodox Church in America

"S T Kimbrough has made a jewel of a booklet out of his lifelong curiosity within the lifetime of the church buildings and the historic traditions center to the larger ecclesiastical culture. during this vigorous research he makes a bridge for readers among the non secular traditions of the reformed international via Wesley and different luminaries, and the early Christian doctrines approximately redemption below the analogy of deification through grace."
--John A. McGuckin, Professor of Byzantine background, Columbia University

S T Kimbrough, Jr., is a study Fellow of the guts for reports within the Wesleyan culture of Duke Divinity institution. he's the founding father of The Charles Wesley Society and editor of its magazine, Proceedings of The Charles Wesley Society. As author/editor he has released various books on Charles Wesley, together with Charles Wesley: Poet and Theologian and The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley (3 vols.).