A perfect match?

From Paul Johnson's A History of Christianity (B&N, Amazon: 1976, 18th edition, page 365f):

[Speaking of the mid 1700's, and John Locke's "modernizing" influence]

... the Church of England went a long way towards satisfying the needs of the commercial middle classes of the towns, and it did so without driving a wedge between science and learning on the one hand, and institutional religion on the other. But it had nothing to offer to the lower orders, in particular to the swelling proletariat of the new industrial cities. Moreover, in its anxiety to dispel dangerous 'enthusiasm' and avoid any kind of fanaticism, it presented a Christianity which was part cerebral, part ceremonial, and wholly purged emotion.

[But at about the same time, John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, emerged.]

[John Wesley's] Christianity was almost totally devoid of intellectual content. It had no doctrinal insights. It was wholly ethical and emotional. ...

He discovered that religious enthusiasm was an ephemeral thing unless it was harnessed to a carefully defined structure, periodically galvanized by meetings, and given a chance to express itself in regular, planned and arduous activities. ... [Members] pledged themselves to take part in activities such as Bible-meetings, sewing for charity, and so forth. He produced regulations about clothes, food and drink, ornaments, money, buying and selling, and language. There was strict ... personal discipline. ...

[They were] like the early Christians, whom they resembled in some ways, especially in their charitable organizations ...

President Bush is a Methodist.

And today, this story about Bush's frequent use of religious language. (AP) Excerpt:

"This president is using general references and, beyond that, terminology and vocabulary that come straight out of a very particular religious tradition, which is evangelical Christianity," said the Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, a Louisiana pastor and executive director of the Interfaith Alliance Foundation, an umbrella interfaith group.

"I think his rhetoric implies a lack of appreciation for the vast pluralism of religion in this nation," Gaddy said.

posted by Quiddity at 2/18/2003 06:23:00 PM