The Almost Mystic: John Wesley’s Editing of the Spanish Mystics, Juan de Ávila and Miguel de Molinos, in His Christian Library

In 1749, John Wesley began to publish his Christian Library, a compilation of edited and abridged works selected from a broad range of ecclesial traditions and periods in Christian history as ‘the Choicest Pieces of Practical Divinity’, which he intended for the spiritual edification of serious-minded Christians. Among the eventual fifty volumes in the collection are English translations of two works originally published in Spanish: a selection of Letters by Juan de Ávila (1499/1500–69) and the Spiritual Guide by Miguel de Molinos (1628–96). Ávila was a respected preacher, spiritual director, and counter-Reformation scholar; Molinos an influential contemplative, whose emphasis on the need for silence before God led to the Quietist movement in England, which Wesley first embraced and then decisively rejected.The Christian Library has long been neglected in Wesley and Methodist studies as being of relatively little value or interest in comparison with the extensive body of Wesley’s sermons and treatises on selected topics. However, careful attention to Wesley’s close editing of these selected works suggests the Christian Library may be a rich resource for understanding the development of his own theological perspective through his engagement with influential spiritual sources, of which these two Spanish mystics form but a small fraction.The apparent influence of several Roman Catholic mystical writers on aspects of John Wesley’s spiritual formation has long been acknowledged among Wesley scholars but rarely explored systematically in relation to the central themes of soteriology. The notable exception is Robert G. Tuttle’s Mysticism in the Wesleyan Tradition (1989). Wesley challenged the mystical understanding of suffering as expressed by the sixteenth-century Spaniard John of the Cross in his Dark Night and reflected a century later by Molinos in his Spiritual Guide. Wesley also wrote extensively on the dangers of Quietism. Yet, the mystical language of union with God is reflected in Wesley’s doctrines of Christian perfection and entire sanctification, even though he insisted upon the autonomy of the human soul and its enduring differentiation from the creator. Playing on the title of Wesley’s famous sermon on ‘the Almost Christian’, Wesley himself might be described as ‘the Almost Mystic’.Steven P. Tungate directs the Center for Pastoral Formation for the Free Methodist Church USA and Grenville University and is the author of two previous books. In this comparative study, Tungate investigates the theological similarities and differences between John Wesley and the two Spanish mystics as revealed by Wesley’s close editing of their work. Among the topics investigated are theological authority, epistemology and self-knowledge, soteriology, spiritual growth, suffering and divine withdrawal, prayer, meditation, contemplation and mystical language, and the telos or goal of the spiritual life.Tungate highlights the strong influence of Roman Catholic mysticism on Wesley’s understanding of spiritual growth and Christian perfection. He compares the ways in which Wesley, Ávila, and Molinos describe the soteriological order in the early, middle, and final stages of spiritual progression, noting commonalities and differences. His conclusion is that Wesley’s editing of Ávila and Molinos in the Christian Library ‘highlights the ways in which Wesley was Protestant in his bibliology, mostly Lutheran and Arminian in his soteriology, somewhat Moravian in his spirituality, almost Roman Catholic mystic in his teleology, and uniquely Methodist throughout’ (204). Whether this headline categorization entirely captures Wesley’s mature theological perspective needs to be thoroughly tested against the sermons, controversial literature, and doctrinal treatises in the Wesleyan corpus. Here the caveats ‘mostly’, ‘somewhat’, and ‘almost’ acknowledge the way in which Wesley typically sought to integrate and hold together divergent perspectives, thereby making it difficult to classify his theology in neat terms.By undertaking a detailed analysis of Wesley’s editing of the Spanish mystics Juan de Ávila and Miguel de Molinos in an original and extensive piece of research, Steven Tungate has made a welcome contribution to the hitherto neglected study of the Christian Library as a resource for investigating and understanding some of the subtleties in the Methodist founder’s theological perspective. This reviewer echoes Tungate’s desire that his research may act as a catalyst for further study of the Christian Library among the community of Wesley scholars. In that regard, the book will be of special interest to academic students, while its clear and accessible style makes it a rewarding investment of labour for the general reader in Wesley and Methodist studies, undeterred by its relatively narrow focus.