Lecture 28: Perfection, Holiness, and Pentecostalism

Perfection, Holiness, and Pentecostalism .....................................

Lecture 28

In this lecture, we continue tracing the history of Protestant theology in

its career through modernity. We continue looking at variations of the

theme of the turn to experience, and especially the turn to experience

in the Revivalist tradition that becomes so important in England and

especially in America.

T

he most distinctive feature of Wesley’s theology is his insistence on

the possibility of sancti¿ cation and the obligation to pursue it. The

Methodist call to faith was inseparable from a call to holiness of life

or sancti¿ cation. For Wesley, Christian perfection meant the completion of

sancti¿ cation in a heart entirely given to holy love. Hence for Wesley, to

be perfect means simply to love with one’s whole heart. It does not mean

perfect wisdom and good judgment, or freedom from ever being mistaken

or at fault.

The possibility of Christian perfection is incompatible with the Lutheran

conviction that Christians are always at the same time righteous and sinners.

A disagreement Wesley had with Zinzendorf reveals the deep difference

between his doctrine of sancti¿ cation and the Lutheran conviction that

Christians always remain sinners. Wesley insists that the grace of the

Holy Spirit works a real holiness in the hearts of believers. Zinzendorf,

echoing Luther, insists that believers ¿ nd holiness only in Christ, never in

themselves. The Reformed agree with Luther that sancti¿ cation in this life is

never perfect, but typically agree with Wesley that we can see an increase of

holiness (progressive sancti¿ cation) in our own lives.

The Holiness tradition arose within Methodism when Phoebe Palmer sought

what she called the “shorter way” to entire sancti¿ cation. Palmer taught at

camp meetings and revivals, but also at the famous “Tuesday Night Meetings

for the Promotion of Holiness” in her home in New York City for nearly 40

years beginning in 1836.