The Major Areas Of Wesley'S Social Praxig
PART CAH
THE MAJOR AREAS OF WESLEY'S
SOCIAL PRAXIS
CHAPTER I
THE SOCIAL WORK OF THE EARLY
OXFORD METHODISTS
A nyone wanting to achieve an overview of the amazing breadth of Wesley's social activity! must become seriously concerned with his individual actions, and place them in the broader perspective of social responsibility. The student of John Wesley's life work must remember that it belongs almost entirely to the pre-revolutionary epoch of recent European history. The early socialists' activity was beginning while Wesley's activity was coming to an end. The first phase of what can be properly labeled as the English labor movement began just after Wesley had died.' The intensity of the class conflicts that followed, and their effect 6n society at large and the church's work in particular, tend to obscure our vision of Wesley's theological achievement and cloud our recognition that Wesley was very much a product of his historical context. It is important to outline the social situation of the lower classes of English society in the mid-eighteenth century.
1. THE MISERY OF THE LOWER CLASSES
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the not insignificant number of poor varied from one part of England to another and from year to year, depending on the harvest. The rather considerable middle class included skilled workers and craftsmen; this changed, however, with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Even the Marxist historian Jiirgen Kuczynski characterizes the period up to 1760 favorably in comparison with what was to follow: "The polarization process—that is, the division of the populace into a great mass of people becoming poorer and poorer, ever more wretched, and a small minority of very rich people—was, in comparison with the time of the Industrial
Revolution, still in the beginning stages of development." Nevertheless,
The Major Areas of Wesley's Social Praxis the cottagers and the poor already formed the largest stratum of the populace.* During the eighteenth century their number increased considerably. Most lacked any schooling or vocational training. Most no longer lived in their home communities, but in newly developed industrial areas or slum districts at the cities' edge. Hence they had lost their privileges of economic support and were no longer accessible to the ecclesiastical arrangement that was oriented to traditional parochial structures. They survived as crowded masses in living conditions that were catastrophic even for that time. Without any medical care, the high mortality rate was offset only by the even higher birthrate.'
This increasing wretchedness of large segments of the population would reach its peak in the nineteenth century. Its causes lay above all in the dispossession of the rural population, incipient industrialization, the rigid attitude of public social agencies, and the traditional attitude of property owners.
The rural population became dispossessed due to the enclosure of communal lands, the expropriation of fallow land, and the consolidation of farms and fields. Parliament had provided the legal preconditions for all of the above. The almost exclusive beneficiaries of this development were the property owners, whose strong investment power and modernized agricultural methods took away the very foundation of existence from the no-longer-competitive small farmers, freeholders, and part-time farmers. After 1760, this process rapidly increased, produced a growing number of unemployed persons, and thereby depressed industrial wages. The invention of the steam engine and other laborsaving devices only heightened unemployment. The wool industry machine work replaced the handwork once carried out in innumerable small household businesses.' Independent craftsmen, like the peasants before them, fell into the insecure fate of dependence upon wages.
Until well into the nineteenth century, public measures regarding the poor' were oriented to the almost unaltered poor-laws of the Elizabethan era, which can be summed up thus:
All persons able to work must be compelled to work when they are found unemployed, the youth among them placed in apprenticeship. The handicapped and the sick are cared for at public cost in poorhouses, where they too are to work insofar as they are able. The cost of their maintenance and of the maintenance of people capable of work who are being punished in houses of correction for begging is the responsibility of the respective places of birth, which also must bear the cost of this care for the poor.®
The Social Work of the Early Oxford Methodists This law left unresolved in ever-increasing gravity the social problems
the eighteenth century that arose out of poverty. This should be attributed not only to the apathy of the appropriate authorities," but also to the requirement that the poor seek help in their birthplace," and to the population movements that necessarily occurred as a result of economic changes." Partial responsibility also belongs to the traditional
English attitude that poverty itself is a fault, to be borne as a stigma of divine punishment." A fixed scale of religiously grounded values supported the static character of a segmented society. The property owners' egotism was so great that their charitable activities and humanitarian gifts were frequently exercises of religious obligation rather than actual help directed toward bringing about change for the needy." Because criminal acts resulting from poverty were better known than the misery of the poor, indignation tended to replace sympathy."
But conservatism was not limited to property owners. Even the poor were not inclined to a different attitude toward the state, society, and the economy, an attitude that would have been better suited to the new realities.'° But when the exploitation of workers, increasing unemployment, inhumane working conditions (especially of miners, women, and children), and low wages were joined by lack of food and extraordinary brutality by employers, local demonstrations arose and the mob's wrath occasionally led to violence. Instead of doing away with the evils that had caused such justifiable protests, the authorities interpreted every disturbance of public order as an attack on traditional privileges. Thus they usually had military forces intervene, smash the demonstration, and impose severe punishment upon the instigators."
The wealthy were generally concerned with securing property and enhancing income. In spite of the many efforts of individuals and of some philanthropic societies, neither state nor church could comprehend or relieve the increasingly urgent and sizable problem of poverty.
The basic motive behind all public and private measures was to maintain the existing order.
2. CHRISTIAN PHILANTHROPY
Historians' judgments of England's ecclesiastical circumstances at the beginning of the eighteenth century are unequivocally negative: "The ae
The Major Areas of Wesley's Social Praxis feasts of the Church were ignored; daily worship was neglected; buildings were allowed to fall into disrepair; and Holy Communion was observed infrequently. Bishops and clergy had become indolent and worldly. They neglected their spiritual duties."'* Newly developed residential districts in the spreading cities particularly suffered from a lack of pastoral care. The existing churchmanship of the Anglican
Christians, and to some extent of the Dissenters, resembled only an external morality.'
This was not true of the "religious societies" that had arisen near the end of the seventeenth century under the initiative of Anton Horneck and Richard Smithies. They were mainly concerned with personal conversations in small circles and lives lived in accordance with strict rules. Their ecclesiastical affiliation was high-church Anglican—prayers from the Book of Common Prayer and regular celebration of Communion defined their religious activity. These societies spread, especially among younger people, from London outward into other cities. In keeping with other contemporary philanthropic efforts, the societies undertook social tasks as well: financially supporting poor people, caring for prisoners, and visiting the sick and those in hospitals and workhouses." The scope of their influence is very difficult to define.
The societies admitted only Anglicans, no Dissenters; they focused on liturgical and devotional practices; their basic motif, to which even social work was entirely subordinate, was holiness, in the sense of ecclesiastical-ascetic piety. Nevertheless, these societies clearly contrast with an inactive state church and a society that almost totally denied the burning needs of its poor.
Two societies in particular developed and grew beyond the narrow circle of a local club: the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
(SPCK, founded in 1698) and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG, founded in 1701). The SPCK aspired "to provide schools in London where children not normally within the reach of the Church could receive catechism; to print good books for the poor; and to promote religion in the American plantations, by means, mostly, of suitable literature."?' The SPG especially emphasized church care for English citizens in the colonies and evangelizing the natives.
An indeterminate number of individual initiatives accompanied these institutional activities. Particularly influential were Jeremy Taylor and William Law, who worked to eliminate moral and social evils and alleviate the plight of the poor. The overall picture of English society in this period remained extremely tense. A predominant majority of ae
The Social Work of the Early Oxford Methodists conservative property owners, who were concerned only with preserving their privileges, stood opposed to the poor, who were almost apathetically dependent and needy. Even the minority of groups and individuals who exerted themselves greatly were not able to overcome the wretchedness of those whose life they were striving to improve.
Prejudice for the traditional structures obscured their vision of poverty's evil causes. The very character of their piety meant that ultimately even their devoted care for the poor was only the means of their own sanctification.
3, THE SOCIAL ACTIVITY OF THE EARLY
OXFORD METHODISTS
The social activity of the Oxford "Holy Club," of which John Wesley had become the leader, should be viewed in this context of other religious societies." Here Wesley was first confronted with the challenge for social work and recognized it to be an essential, inseparable part of the Christian life.
The Practical Social Work of the Club Members Three theological students, including John's younger brother Charles, had formed a small circle "for the study of the classics and of the New Testament and for the cultivation of piety."" They desired to provide mutual assistance in study and in their Christian lives.
John, their senior or superior in several respects, joined them and became their leader. They read books for edification, especially those of Thomas a Kempis, Jeremy Taylor, and William Law. Employing formulated questions, they regularly examined their personal lives in thought, word, and deed, including the content and carrying out of their plans. Without exception they were faithful members of the Anglican church, intending to encourage the better fulfillment of its rules and ordinances in the lives of other students also. However, this very concern—and later, their social activity—met with resistance, sometimes expressed in ridicule or irritation among their fellow students and teachers, only a few of whom approved or understood.
The Oxford circle undertook a task costly in time and money: social work in the city. Again, it was not John Wesley who provided the
The Major Areas of Wesley's Social Praxis stimulus for this undertaking, but a younger member of the circle; however, it was Wesley who took up the initiative and gave direction.
This social undertaking survived even after John's departure for Georgia until the Holy Club was entirely dissolved. The students' involvement appeared essentially at four points: in the two city prisons in Oxford, among poor families, in the workhouse, and ina school for underprivileged children. With approval of the appropriate ecclesiastical and civil officials in Oxford, the Wesleys and their friends regularly visited the two prisons, assumed responsibility for preaching and pastoral care to the prisoners, and occasionally provided financial support to help prisoners begin a new occupation.
An especially serious distress arose in deprived families in which the mother or the father became ill. When the student circle undertook their care, they visited the family at least once each week, secured medicines and clothing, taught the children, and explained
Christian doctrines to the entire family. They offered similar support to the community's workhouse residents. Monies were supplied by a fund of regular or occasional contributions of friends and supplemented by the young men themselves. They saved money
'by denying themselves the typical student pleasures and stylish clothing, and later by fasting.
The scope of this small group's social activity is best indicated by the school for poor children, probably established by John Wesley himself.
Asa teacher he apparently felt strongly the inadequacy of the children's sporadic instruction. John secured and paid a teacher, inspected the children's instruction and handwork, and taught them biblical stories, prayers, and truths of the Christian faith. For years some twenty children from poor families were given an education they would otherwise have been denied.
Religious Motivation for Social Work Why did these young men do all this despite personal sacrifice and the high price of hostility? We gain accurate information from John Wesley himself. During the discussions about the Holy Club, John had formulated for both friends and adversaries a series of questions, differing from earlier lists, related particularly to charitable activity.
Some of them read as follows:
The Social Work of the Early Oxford Methodists I. Whether it does not concern all men of all conditions to imitate him as much as they can, "who went about doing good"?
Whether all Christians are not concerned in that command, "While we have time, let us do good to all men"?
Whether we shall not be happy hereafter the more good we do now?
Whether we can be happy at all hereafter unless we have, according to our power, "fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited those that are sick and in prison"; and made all these actions subservient to a higher purpose, even the saving of souls from death?
Whether it be not our bounden duty always to remember that He did more for us than we can do for him, who assures us, "Inasmuch as ye have done it to one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto mie'? y..
III. Whether, upon these considerations above-mentioned we may not try to do good to those that are hungry, naked, or sick? In particular whether if we know any necessitous family, we may not give them a little food, clothes, or physic as they want?
Whether we may not give them, if they can read, a Bible, Common Prayer Book, or "Whole Duty of Man" [a devotional book by Richard
Allestree, London, 1659]?
Other needs would be guidance for understanding this literature, for prayer, and for church attendance, as well as assistance in clothing and teaching the children. And, "Lastly: Whether, upon the considerations above-mentioned, we may not try to do good to those who are in prison?""** In light of these questions the society's motives appear to have been on the one hand, imitation of Jesus and fulfillment of his commandments, and on the other, striving for blessedness through commitment to the higher goal of the salvation of souls. Obedience to Christ's undisputed authority was connected with the worthy goal of one's own blessedness.
A letter of Wesley's from July, 1731 echoes a similar religious eudaemonism: "I was made to be happy: to be happy I must love God; in proportion to my love of whom my happiness must increase."" The shape of this love became visible in Jesus and has been transmitted in the New Testament in exemplary fashion. Accordingly, the Bible is understood primarily as an ethical norm; Christ, the apostles, and the _ first Christians are the examples one should emulate." Christians can attain blessedness in this life by carefully fulfilling the commandments given to them.
Before Wesley departed for Georgia to work as a pastor to the
The Major Areas of Wesley's Social Praxis colonists and a missionary to the Indians, he stated his motivation: "My main motive, to which all others are subordinate, is the hope of saving my own soul.""" However, this motivation may be in tension with another: his orientation to God's will. Wesley had rejected his father's request that he succeed him as pastor in Epworth. Wesley explained that his only reason was the glory of God, most fully realized by a way of life
"whereby we can most promote holiness in ourselves and in others."
Sanctification is God's will, most thoroughly fulfilled by obeying the commandment of love. Loving God and one's neighbors is the Christian's highest obligation; failing to fulfill this obligation blocks the way to happiness. Love for God commands first place."
Aside from the Wesley brothers and George Whitefield, the members of the Oxford student circle played no role in later Methodist work.
Most of them became "ordinary, unremarkable ministers."* John Wesley, however, throughout his life remained active in social issues.
Wesley's activity gained a new foundation when justification by faith alone became the basis of his life and work. The work at Oxford had its continuing significance primarily in the fact that it kept Wesley from being diverted into a monastic or ascetic style of piety*and permanently stamped upon him the duty of practical love of neighbor. The demise of the Oxford circle made evident to Wesley the necessity of a more reliable foundation than works-righteousness.* In his encounters with Luther's theology and the Moravians,* Wesley discovered this foundation in justification by faith as a personal experience giving the assurance of salvation.
CHAPTER II
WESLEY'S AND THE METHODIST
SOCIETIES' AID TO THE POOR
r Vhe Methodist movement began as evangelism, proclaiming the gospel of God's justifying grace to an unchurched audience drawn largely from the lower classes. After some twenty years of evangelism, Wesley wrote in his journal:
It is well a few of the rich and noble are called. Oh, that God would increase their number! But I should rejoice (were it the will of God) if it were done by the ministry of others. If I must choose, I should still (as I have done hitherto) preach the gospel to the poor.!
, Wesley was one of the first not only to see the poor as recipients of alms and objects of charitable care, but also to set forth the genuinely
- Christian duty to eliminate their wretchedness. This work, of course, was within Wesley's limits as a layman in political and social science in the pre-revolutionary eighteenth century and an Anglican loyal to the king.
The fact remains basically undisputed that Wesley nevertheless exerted a preeminently positive influence in English social history. The nature of that influence and Wesley's theological justification of it should be distinguished from his practical activity and from his theoretical statements on other topics.
1. PRACTICAL MEASURES FOR AID TO THE POOR
Wesley undertook various measures to relieve the poor—some 'independently, some in concert with other groups such as the religious societies, and some of his own design. These efforts were prompted by his own perception of the misery he encountered in his numerous
The Major Areas of Wesley's Social Praxis travels and visits to families, factories, workhouses, hospitals, and prisons. These actions consisted of measures toward self-help and charitable deeds to relieve distress. Understandably in such a young, numerically small movement, these were at first limited/The earliest and most widely practiced aid for the poor was the weekly "class meeting" conducted by the class leader, with the aid of the members of the fellowship assigned to him.? After careful consultation among administrators expressly chosen for this task, the collective contributions were distributed to the needy,' partly in cash, partly in clothing, foodstuffs, fuel, or medicine. In extraordinary distress from poor harvests, severe winter weather, or other unexpected circumstances, special collections were solicited to bring substantial relief, or Wesley himself traveled to plead for the needed funds.* The amounts collected, often reaching more than one hundred pounds, may be compared with Wesley's ability to meet his own needs with twenty-eight pounds per year,' and the fact that the majority of Methodists were not among the propertied class.° Of course, Wesley knew that to occasionally supply the poor with the most sorely needed foodstuffs did not permanently deliver them from dire need. But the financial means raised in response to Wesley's preaching and pointed appeals provided the economic basis for most of his social undertakings. Repeatedly Wesley stirred the public conscience through appeals in sermons, conversations, and the press.
Alongside the provision of foodstuffs and clothing, Wesley introduced an additional assistance in London and Bristol in 1746-47: medical care for the poor. The hygienic conditions in many residences were catastrophic, medical care was utterly inadequate, nutrition was often poor, and knowledge about healthly living and caring for the sick was minimal. In addition, the widespread use of poor quality alcoholic beverages weakened the body's power of resistance.' Numerous poor were not able to secure medicine or the aid of a physician; others fell into the hands of quacks.* Even the Methodists' regular, well-organized ministry of visiting the sick® was insufficient.
A more extensive "desperate" step was required once Wesley decided all other possibilities of help appeared fruitless:"° he himself dispensed medicine and treated simple illnesses. At Oxford, Wesley had attended medical lectures, preparing himself in case there were no physicians in the Georgia colony. Now he secured the advice of a pharmacist and an experienced physician, and he referred the more serious cases to the medical specialists.'' Using some quite "modern" methods, always
Wesley's and the Methodist Societies' Aid to the Poor without payment, Wesley was able to aid some hundreds of people within a few months." Most of them did not belong to any of the Methodist societies.
This important activity of free medical care continued, even outside the sphere of the Methodists' work." Wesley's efforts also pioneered medical care for a broader strata of the English population and the establishment of free "dispensaries" (pharmacies/clinics).* Moreover, he provided many with self-help for problems of proper nourishment and hygiene, treatment of illnesses, and care of the sick with his manual
Primitive Physic, which appeared in its thirty-second edition in 1828."
Wesley introduced two other measures that realistically encouraged the poor in their oppressive and seemingly insuperable poverty: a loan fund and a system for finding jobs. Interest-free loans could be secured up to three months from a "loan fund," to the basic capital of which Wesley had contributed from his own savings. The loan amount was first limited to twenty shillings, but later raised to five pounds.' Within one year the limited starting capital of barely thirty pounds provided assistance for more than 250 persons, rescuing them from lenders demanding extortionate interest that would have compounded their distress.'" In 1767, the loan fund was increased to 120 pounds, and the number of borrowers multiplied. The financial dealings, from which Wesley received no profit, were handled by administrators from the very outset.
Even more important than providing loans was finding jobs, to which Wesley constantly devoted himself. He recognized unemployment as one of the chief causes of widespread poverty. Because he was frequently unable to place unemployed persons in firms, he arranged the initiation of work projects as often as possible. The first of these projects was carried out in the newly erected London meetinghouse, a former cannon foundry. During the winter, twelve persons were engaged in processing cotton, and later, women were also employed in knitting.'* How many received such assistance or how long this project continued is not known, but we do know that Wesley suffered public suspicion and accusations about it."
Wesley's most important contribution improving the poor's quality of life lay neither in these individual projects (however exemplary), nor in his extremely beneficial comprehensive educational efforts. Instead, it lay in the changed consciousness that this now nortorious preacher began to engender both among the affected poor and the higher strata of English society.