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The Influence of Pearson’s Exposition of the Creed on the Wesleys: An Analysis with Application

Bishop John Pearson (1613–1686) of the Church of England authored one of the classic texts of Anglican theology, his Exposition of the Creed (first edition 1659). In it, he used the Apostles’ Creed as a framework for instruction in Nicene and Protestant doctrine, supported by copious citations of earlier—especially patristic—authorities. Pearson’s Exposition played a foundational theological role at the origins of Methodism. Susanna Wesley relied on it in instructing her children, and John Wesley both commended it to his early Methodists and drew from it himself. Until now, however, scholars have been content to note Pearson’s influence on Susanna and John in largely general terms. This paper examines in detail the dependence on and divergences from Pearson’s Exposition in two key documents from the Wesley family: Susanna Wesley’s catechetical letter to her children (1710) and John Wesley’s “Letter to a Roman Catholic” (1749). The influence of Pearson’s Exposition on John Wesley, both direct and (through Susanna) indirect, is all the more noteworthy given John’s moves to mute the creeds in his founding of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America (1784): his revision of the Anglican liturgy for Sunday worship services removes the recitation of the Nicene Creed, while his redaction of the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion omits Article VIII, which affirmed the authority of the Three Creeds (Nicene, Athanasian, and Apostles’). The study of Pearson’s influence on the early Wesley thus opens up a route by which today’s Methodists may reconnect with their creedal heritage.

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