Toward a Wesleyan-Holiness Theology of Revival

Abstract

This article is an exercise in fides quaerens intellectum about revival in the Wesleyan-Holiness tradition. It examines accounts of revival by early British and American Methodists—John Wesley, Francis Asbury, and Luther Lee—and identifies the common elements of their descriptions. It then seeks to provide a theological understanding of these revivals by drawing upon distinctive ideas from Wesleyan historical and systematic theologians: divine omnipresence, free grace, divine holiness and love, and the means of grace. Finally, it offers a theological definition of revival from a Wesleyan-Holiness perspective and briefly explores implications for today.