From the outset of the Evangelical Revival it was more than apparent that John Wesley ―saw himself as having a particular mission to the poor people‖ (Stone 2001:8). Wesley dedicated almost seventy years towards helping the poor. His ethics sought to impact and transform the underprivileged and deprived parts of society (Marquardt 1992).Wesley‘s idea of prosperity is seen in the theology of salvation as health and wealth where he regards love as healing and helping the poor. Wesley raised current issues about love as healing and the preferential option for the poor in his writings where he displayed a holistic mission stirred and filled with God‘s love and the availability of salvation for all (Wynkoop 1972:25). As an advocate of prosperity by implication, John Wesley, through his provision and articulation of health and wealth issues, defined salvation as:
…deliverance from hell, or going to heaven, but a present deliverance from sin, a restoration of the soul to its primitive health . . . the renewal of our souls after the image of God in righteousness and true holiness, in justice, mercy, and truth (Maddox 2007:7).
From the above definition one can deduce that Wesley wanted his followers and his generation to look for a holistic salvation where God‘s forgiveness of sins is combined with
24Student A–F are pseudonyms or code names used for the protection of the interviewees; the real names are in the custody of the researcher for ethical reasons, as shall be explained in detail in chapter six on methodology. Appendix 14 gives a list of all participants who took part in the study without any order.
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God‘s gracious healing of the damage that sin has produced. Wesley nicely blended pardon and action to strike a balance in the soteriological process.
John Wesley‘s interest in health issues resulted from the requirement that medicine become part of the training of Anglican clergy candidates around the seventeenth century. Maddox (2007:5) states that as part of their holistic ministry, priests offered medical care in small villages. This helps to explain why evangelization was intrinsically intertwined with the establishment of health centres. Seen as part of ministry and to be executed by the church, mission hospitals were created even in countries like Zimbabwe. Wesley indicates that between 1724 and 1732, he studied ―medical treaties while at Oxford and when he went to Georgia in 1736 as a missionary Wesley read medical texts including one for medicinal herbs by John Tennent who listed herbs found in the continent‖(Maddox 2007:6).
Things only changed when the Royal College of Physicians in London sought to control certification of medical practitioners and the clergy were targeted for exclusion (Porter 1995:375). Wesley refused to be deregistered from offering medical guidance and to leave it to those who were certified by the College because for him he was grounded in the holistic understanding of salvation. In his definition of salvation, Wesley did not limit it to the forgiveness of sins rather; he opted for a holistic approach, viewing salvation as God‘s forgiveness of sins that is combined with healing the damage caused by sin. This is equally seen in his advice to his friend Alexander Knox, who was sick. He said:
…it will be a double blessing if you give yourself up to the Great Physician, that He may heal soul and body together (Wesley Center Online 1778:16; see also Matlei 2002:16).
For John Wesley, the plan of God is to give both inward and outward health. And in this regard, Wesley understood that God provides full healing of body and soul through divine healing experience here and now. This idea was not the understanding of the Anglican Church and some Christians of his day who had the conviction that this was to happen at the resurrection time.
Wesley‘s strong view of a holistic approach to pastoral responsibilities is seen in his instructions to clergy and lay preachers about their ministry among Methodist people in his charge to them. He said that when they visited various societies, they should provide ongoing guidance and to recommend two important works – that of Thomas à Kempis on ‗The
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Imitation of Christ‘, which Wesley valued as a guide to spiritual health, and the ‗Primitive Physic‘ which Wesley prepared as a guide to physical health (Maddox 2007:8). In this Wesley had a desire to enable his preachers to be able to dispense personal advice along with books. This, in my view, points to the fact that Wesley valued informed advice through education rather than reliance on irrational decisions that are not substantiated by the knowledge and authority of scholarship.
In Methodism, this was not limited to deacons only, but it was extended to local lay women and men who were involved in day today ministerial activities (equated today to class leaders who have the responsibility to exercise pastoral care in looking after the sick and the poor in the community). The office of the visitor of the sick were expected to visit sick members in their area three times a week to inquire into the state of their souls and their bodies and to offer or procure advice for them in both regards (Maddox, 2007:8). Wesley, in this context, ministered to both physical and spiritual, both the soul and the body, as he extended his hand to others. In his desire and commitment to care for the physical body, he was grounded in his belief of the encompassing nature of salvation whilst he advocated a holistic approach that encompasses all healing methods. His advice in 1788 to Samuel Bradburn, who was taking care of Charles Wesley whose health was deteriorating, gives more insight advising that, whether his brother was to die or not Dr Whitehead was to be taken to him, if he was not able to go out he has to do exercises or if he is to die he should be persuaded to use a wooden horse twice or three times a day and he advised him to be electrified (Bristol, 13 March 1788 letter to Samuel Bradburn) see also (Matlei 2001).
It is evident from this letter that John Wesley valued both professional and traditional medical treatment. Wesley insisted that Charles should consult a medical doctor. He did not reject medical care even if he himself had developed his natural and traditional remedies for the body. For Wesley, the best advice is sought from a good and honest physician. In this regard, Wesley endorsed or affirmed both divine and medical healing (Maddox 2007).
Another view on health is seen from the letter Wesley wrote to Robert Carr Brackenbury, 13 February 1784, when Wesley encouraged the use of medical care. He wrote:
…it is undoubtedly our duty to use the most probable means we can for either preserving or restoring our health. But, after all, God does continually assert His own right of saving both
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souls and bodies. He blesses the medicines, and they take place; …I commend you to him who is able to heal both your soul and body (Matlei 2002:7).
Wesley indicates to us the possibility of not only relying on faith healing but also to do our part in preserving and restoring our health through the use of medicines, which he categorically spelt out, are blessed by God. At the same time, Wesley is also teaching us to put trust in God through prayer as he considers God to be the medicine of all medicines.
Regarding emotional disturbances, or what Wesley called lunacy and madness or demonic afflictions, Wesley read the book by George Cheyne in 1742 which argued that true lunacy and madness are as a result of natural causes and they require natural cures (Maddox 2007:12). This made Wesley not to spiritualise all kinds of mental afflictions but rather to approach them cautiously. He even recommended institutional care for lunatics at St Luke‘s Hospital. Wesley also included natural cures for mental illness in 1747 in the Primitive Physic, signifying that in addition to prayers, people should be treated by either professional or traditional means. This is clearly articulated in his journal of 24 September 1742 where he attributed a case of raving madness simply to fever. He further recorded (in Journals of 5 June 1753, 2 July 1766) that ―prayer for deliverance was not sufficient for curing lunacy or madness‖ (Works of John Wesley 19:299, 20:461-463, and 21:28-29, in Jackson 1872).
His wholesome approach to physical healing is also reflected in his journal of 12 May 1759 when he stated thus:
…why then do not all physicians consider how far bodily disorders are caused or influenced by the mind, and in those cases, which are utterly out of their sphere, call in the assistance of a minister; as ministers, when they find the mind disordered by the body, call in the assistance of a physician? But why are these cases out of their sphere? (Wesley 1703-1791:146).
A comprehensive way to approach all cases of illness is to exercise referral as one employs a balanced approach to health and healing. Wesley reminded his followers that ―spiritual heaviness should not always be attributed to spiritual causes, it often reflects the impact of bodily disorders, acute diseases, calamities, poverty and the like‖ (Maddox 2007:17). Wesley understood healing in a multifaceted way and he practiced it in his ministry as an expression of his therapeutic focus on salvation. For humanity, this is the actualization of loving God and the neighbour because God‘s grace, increasingly delivers the human being from the
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power of sin in this life. Therefore, love becomes the centre of Christianity (Hiatt 2008:35). For Wesley, this resonates well with ―sanctifying grace which emphasises that full salvation is attained in this life here and now and in the pursuance of continual growth‖ (Maddox 1994:39-40).