Wesley Bros: Of Videos and Cards

by

This week United Methodist Communications and the Rev. Charlie Baber unveiled an introductory video to the new, animated Wesley Bros series. Using Rev. Baber's original cartoon designs for Methodism's founders John and Charles Wesley, the videos are designed to introduce Methodist history in a 21st-century method. I feel sure that the Wesley Bros would approve of the update.

Videos are a fine creation suitable for our visual age. However, this week I also was struck by an awareness from another Wesley Bros medium – a set of playing cards that show the rich diversity of Methodist history. Others may be put off by the idea of playing cards as a tool for teaching the Methodist version of Christianity, but I personally think it's a stroke of true genius on Charlie Baber's part. Here's why:

My husband John and I play cribbage almost daily. In fact, we refer to our pastime as Never-Ending Cribbage. We have several decks of cards with fanciful themes and colorful designs, but when the Wesley Bros cards arrived earlier this summer, the Cribbage Force encountered a disturbance. Frankly, we had a hard time getting through our daily game because we were stopping to read the history bits on the cards!

All the familiar characters are here: John Wesley, Charles Wesley, Susanna and Samuel Wesley, even Charles' wife Sally Gwynne Wesley and his beloved cat, Grimalkin. However, we didn't expect to meet characters such as Jarena Lee, the first woman in America licensed as a Methodist preacher, or John and Mary Bosanquet Fletcher, arguably Methodism's first "power couple." Mary persuaded John Wesley to authorize female lay preachers, and John Fletcher was the first Wesleyan theologian to balance contradictory concepts. Nor did I know of the Methodist connections of William Joseph Seymour, who led the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles that gave rise to the American Pentecostal and charismatic movements.

What really blew me away, though, was the series of early Christian theologians – often known as "the Patristics" or "church fathers" – whose works had a significant influence on John Wesley's theology.  Of course, it makes sense that "Father John" (as I like to call him) would know of these early Christian authorities, given his classical Oxford education. Their inclusion in the Wesley Bros playing cards surprised me because concise as they are, they show the depth and diversity of Christianity behind the Methodist movement. With quotes from the cards, here's a brief roll call:

  • Gregory of Nyssa, who posited that because God is infinite, there's always more of God "to know and enjoy."
  • Ignatius, whose life overlapped with Christ's disciples, and who wrote of martyrdom and Eucharist as "the medicine of immortality."
  • Tertullian, "the first to use the term 'trinity' to describe God as 'Father, Son and Spirit.'"
  • (Pseudo) Macarius of Syria, who wrote that "salvation in Christ includes power of the Holy Spirit to activate holy living" (sanctifying grace, anyone?).
  • Athanasius, who taught that "the Son of God became human, so we might become God." (Athanasius also punched Nicholas in the snoot during a theological dispute at the Council of Nicea). 
  • Origen, "controversial biblical scholar refuting Gnostic and Jewish arguments against Christianity. Proponent of allegorical rather than literal reading" of the Bible.

And these are only six cards out of a 52-card deck! Can you imagine what a tool for making disciples a Wesley Bros deck of cards would be to a church youth group? A campus ministry? Even men's and women's groups?

The cards present an enlightening diversity of thought from early Christian leaders through the Reformation into the 19th and 20th centuries. These cards show that Methodism rests on no rarified purity. John Wesley and his companions planted a great living tree, deeply rooted in Christian origins, but bursting forth in each generation with new branches, new shoots, new fruits.

Most of all, I think the Wesley Bros cards show what a great treasure would be lost if the denomination were to split over a momentary issue such as human sexual orientation and practice. Nothing about the presenting issue facing the United Methodist Church in 2019 touches upon the heart of Christian faith described so lucidly in the Wesley Bros cards – no, not even the idea of biblical literalism being essential to scriptural authority.

Yes, Charlie Baber's creation of the Wesley Bros offers pedagogical brilliance for our times. Its multiple media presentation does the Wesleyan tradition proud. We ought to make as much use of its offerings – whether cartoons, cards or videos – as we possibly can.

Descended from Methodist circuit riders and church planters, United Methodist Insight Editor Cynthia B. Astle wishes she'd had Wesley Bros cards and videos when she was teaching Methodist history to laypeople years ago. Unfortunately, the cards still mess up her cribbage playing because she stops strategizing to read them.