Church Steeple
Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
July 16, 2024
Over the years, I have been increasingly grateful that I majored in Sociology in college. [1] As soon as you say the word "Church," sociology enters the picture. The Church is both theological (the Body of Christ) and sociological (institutional). The Wesleys understood this, and they ministered in ways that kept both aspects of the Church in play. In this post I want to mention several aspects of ecclesiology that are inherently sociological.[2]
The first, life together. Sociology informs and directs the formation of healthy community. In this sense, it is an assault on egotism/ethnocentrism because it moves us beyond selfishness (individual and collective) and into stewardship rooted in a theology of love expressed compassionately for the advancement of the common good. [3] The view of the Church shaped the early-Methodist aim for personal, ecclesial, and societal transformation.
The Methodist movement was designed to eliminate self-righteousness (spiritual death) and foster self-consecration (spiritual life), essentially understood through the lens of what Jesus called “abundant living” (John 10:10). [4] John Wesley eschewed the notion of being a “holy solitary” and said that true holiness will always be social holiness. The Prudential Means of Grace (works of mercy) confirm this. A sociology of religion affirms corporate spirituality. [5]
Second, formative structures. Sociology commends tangible formation. Containers are not the content, but without them, the content spills onto the ground. One of the geniuses of the Methodist movement was that each dimension of grace (prevenient, converting, sanctifying, glorifying) had a formative structure to represent and advance it (Society, Class, Band, Church).
Near the end of his life, George Whitfield differentiated between his ministry and that of John Wesley, noting that John gathered responders into communities while he left his followers as “rope of sand.” Christian life can only be sustained in community, and community must be tangible. Sociology helps give substance and spirit to healthy institutional religion.
Third, missional purposes. Peter Berger (in the book cited below) writes how sociology fosters ethics, which calls “the rules of the game.” The Wesleys began the Methodist movement with an ethical base: "The Character of a Methodist" and "General Rules of the United Societies." Holiness is thoroughly moral.
But the Wesleyan view (held earlier by Paul in his letter to the Galatians) prevented holiness from becoming moralistic—that is, prevented holy love from being suffocated by legalism. For them “rules” were not laws to be enforced punitively, but rather trellises to guide growth restoratively. They called it “faith working by love,” and sociologically it produced what we sometimes call “redemption and lift.” Sociology contributed to the Wesleyan view of Christianity as a “religion of the heart.”
The mix of theology and sociology made the Methodist movement an alloy—that is, a union of dynamics stronger and more resilient than when they are separated. And still today, the combination makes Christianity stronger, helping it avoid the extremes of dead orthodoxy and spiritism.
[1] When I discovered that Walter Brueggemann did the same, I emailed him and we had a good exchange as to how Sociology has served us well.
[2] I recommend Peter Berger’s book, ‘Invitation to Sociology’ (Open Road, 2011). His understanding of sociology reflects that of the Wesleys to a great degree.
[3] Walter Brueggemann, ‘Journey to the Common Good’ Updated Edition (Westminster John Knox Press, 2021).
[4] E. Stanley Jones, ‘Abundant Living’ (Whitmore & Stone, 1942). Abingdin Press has keot this classic in print in both paperback and ebook formats.
[5] Richard Foster, ‘Celebration of Discipline’ Special Anniversary Edition (HarperOne, 2018.