From the discussion on the doctrine of salvation, one can deduce that the MCZ has diverted from and paraphrased the original version of Ordo Salutis, moving from an emphasis on health and wealth motifs to concentrating now on the shorter version centred on ‗the four Alls‘ (first propagated by Fitzgerald in 1903 and paraphrased by Margaret James, as already indicated in this chapter). This summarized version and paraphrased version greatly dilutes an already diluted approach to Wesley‘s Ordo Salutis by missionaries, who brought a watered down version, leaving out important issues of health and wealth addressed by John Wesley in his doctrine of salvation. This implies that clergy in ministerial formation receive a simplified and watered down version on Ordo Salutis because they use the paraphrased version of Wesley‘s sermons on salvation. Furthermore, UTC, being an ecumenical college, also further dilutes denominational biases. As a result, not much of Wesley‘s Ordo Salutis is taught, save for polity classes, which leave an hour a week for denominations to teach their doctrines to their clergy.
As also shown in the African (specifically Shona and Ndebele) view of what salvation is and is not, one can conclude that the major weakness of the missionaries when they transported and transplanted the gospel into Zimbabwe was to import a concept of God to forgive sins committed between neighbours, and to focus salvation with soul winning rather than with the salvation of the whole person. As a result Africans were not persuaded. This is an issue of appropriation because John Wesley never stepped foot in Africa, and in Zimbabwe specifically; as a result, his Ordo Salutis and his teachings, are diluted as they traverse from one country to the other and from one generation to another generation. Wesley was a man of his own generation more than 300 years ago. His traditions are carried over with a great deal of review, even though Zimbabwe had a direct link with the Methodist Church in Britain where John Wesley operated. Though important as the doctrine of salvation may appear to be, the process of transmission of this doctrine to the recipients in this case, clergy in training
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entails many mutations, hence the end product will be diluted and may not adequately equip the clergy to respond to opportunities and challenges posed by the prosperity gospel.
Wesley‘s theology of salvation was concerned with a holistic approach for both the soul and the body, as evidenced in his economic and health ethics. The question is what this means in Zimbabwe, a country that is faced with bad politics that lead to economic collapse and poverty. According to Haywood (1964:315) the thing that had stirred Wesley to write to the editors of Lloyd‘s Evening Post was the sight of people on the verge of starvation who were demoralized and living as beggars. For Wesley the cause of depressed conditions was in the hands of the rich who demanded sumptuous living, rising in prices of goods out of reach of the poor, scarcity of food because of farm land was converted into pastures of horses that were to be traded to France and heavy taxes was imposed to the poor people. This scenario is a replica of what is happening in Zimbabwe today where there is hiking of prices, shortages of goods and taxes imposed on citizens offset government expenditure. This calls for the clergy to usher in a prophetic voice to the government to address all the economic hardship people are facing. Like Wesley who stand in the gap of the poor the clergy who are trained should equally appropriate teachings of Wesley in their context. This calls for contextualization of Wesleyan ethics and Biblical ethics to be transformative in the Zimbabwean context and MCZ in particular. All mission theology is contextual theology because it involves the communication of gospel truth by someone with a particular context to someone else in a different context (Bevans, 1994:10):
Contextualization is not something on the fringes of the theological enterprise. It is at the very centre of what it means to do theology in today's world. Contextualization, in other words, is a theological imperative.
This kind of contextualization operates therefore at the level of meaning, and it sets up an ongoing process of reflection and action which continues to refine our understanding of what the gospel will mean for that particular context (Nicholls 1979:20ff). Some advocates of this process allow the context to be the hermeneutical key that is the context itself gives us the categories in which the gospel is to be understood. Others acknowledge the need for the two way process of interpretation, but want to maintain the authority of the gospel to speak to the context in a prophetic way. Bediako 1992: xii) confirms this by saying:
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It is possible to ask fresh questions of the Christian tradition of the past, questions which can in turn illuminate the task of constructing local theologies and the doing of theology in our religiously pluralistic modern world.
In as much as some critics the likes of H. Plumb criticise Wesley and his Primitive Physic as anti-enlightenment and regressive in thinking (1974:9). Wesley‘s ethics sought to improve the lives of the poor in various ways. Socially, economically, and medically, Wesley made a major impact on many of the poor, so much so, that the likes of Stone (2001) argue that it prevented a revolution in England, though this may seem far- fetched for some, this claim alone seems to attest to the overall impact with which Wesley‘s ethics had on the lives of the poor.
3.9 Conclusion
This chapter has managed to trace Wesleyan teachings with regard to the doctrine of salvation, where it has been observed that the order of salvation can be traced from prevenient grace, to justifying grace and sanctifying grace. These concepts were explained in several ways by John Wesley in his sermons and teachings. For example, he once considered them as repentance, faith and holiness, where repentance was taken as the porch and faith as the door to holiness. In the study, it has also been discovered that in a later development of the 20th century, these teachings on salvation were summarized through the works of William Fitzgerald who came up with ‗the four Alls‘, explained above. The study goes further to explain the African understanding of salvation, particularly from the Shona/Ndebele perspective, in order to address why it is appealing to Africans. The chapter presents the way Wesley used the concepts of health and wealth as themes interacting within the doctrine of salvation.
This chapter concludes that Africans not only see salvation as an escape from the wrath of God and salvation of souls in the hereafter. Instead, they view salvation, from Christ‘s incarnation, life, death, resurrection and Parousia, to be a complete package that involves the individual and the society, soul and body, present and future. This is also in line with Methodist clergy who are serving. As one respondent in the interviews said, ―It is a whole gospel to a whole community and it is a package of salvation of the soul guaranteed eternal life through the cross of Christ‖ (M18 2017). As such, Christians must work for their salvation.
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It is also concluded that salvation in the African context means addressing issues that hold back Africans from reaching their full potential here and now (Mugabe 1993). These elements may include amongst others oppression, poverty, diseases, starvation, economic hardships, political violence, sexism and racism. From Wesley‘s preferential option for the poor, salvation means the humanizing of people who have been dehumanized by societal evil and by personal sin. Wesley emphasized that we cannot claim to love God in our hearts and at the same time turn a blind eye to human greed, hatred, sexism, police brutality, racism, adultery, bigotry, child abuse, and all kinds of perversions which are part of human existence. His thoughts are also in line with the African view of salvation which is against all kinds of human suffering. What Wesley said is not at the periphery of the gospel but at the core and centre of the gospel. ―It is a progressive humanization of society based on ‗being more‘ rather than having more, thus restoring meaning and wholeness to society and to the entire universe‖ (Mugabe 1993:40-41).
The chapter finally concludes by showing that though the doctrine of salvation was the major focus of the gospel by missionaries to Zimbabwe, they failed to appropriate it within the African understanding of salvation; hence the gospel of prosperity becomes more appealing to Africans since it identifies with their understanding of the concept of salvation. It further concludes that Wesley‘s ethical economic idea was grounded in a socialist rather than a capitalist view and is premised on biblical principles for practical ministry purposes. Wesley‘s tripartite dictum in the sermon ―The Use of Money‖ clearly indicates his views and approach to economics which is against a utilitarian philosophy based on a materialistic worldview. Wesley offered holistic and consistent matters of health that is reintegrated with the importance of non-material facet to life, something that cannot be controlled by economics (Stone 2001). Wesley also managed to organize the Methodist believers to mediate for those who are marginalized because of adverse economic policies and deficiencies by spearheading efforts to abolish and condemn slavery, and his tremendous efforts to provide loans to help the poor to start their own business.
Wesley‘s commitment to holistic health and wealth in salvation is a heritage that Methodists should cherish and stand for in their own time taking cognisance that contexts differ. It is important to see how this heritage has been articulated in institutions of clerical training as to equip the clergy to embrace the opportunities and challenges posed by the prosperity gospel
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particularly in Zimbabwe. Transformational contextualization has been emphasized in order to make sense of Wesley‘s teachings in the MCZ today. The next chapter will focus on assessing the contemporary model of ministerial formation used for MCZ ministers, starting with the establishment of theological training colleges, with emphasis on how Wesleyan teachings of Ordo Salutis are taught through polity classes.
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CHAPTER FOUR