Julian Edwin Pace IV(MA, Piedmont International University) is Assistant Pastor at Bloomingdale Alliance Church and is currently pursuing a ThD with a focus in Historical Theology at Evangelical Seminary.
Introduction
John Wesley’s interactions with Moravian communities in the 1730s and 1740s in both Savannah, Georgia, and Herrnhut, Germany, and in his native England have been reasonably well documented. When the literature is carefully consulted three phases of John Wesley’s relationship with the Moravians can be discerned. 1) On his way to and during his ministry in Savannah, Georgia, Wesley was impressed with the piety and theology of the Moravians. 2) Upon returning to England Wesley continued to be nurtured in Moravian piety and Moravians were likely present at his now famous “Aldersgate” experience. 3) By the early 1740s Wesley’s relationship with the Moravians had soured due in part to a clash of personalities with Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, patriarch of the Moravians, and to growing theological differences.
John Wesley’s Earliest Contacts with the Moravians
Perhaps the earliest example of sustained contact between Wesley and the Moravians was during his sea voyage aboard the Simmonds to Savannah, Georgia, in October 1735. During this voyage Wesley became acquainted with Moravian Bishop David Nitschman and twenty-six other Moravians. He was struck by their deep piety and their composure during a frightful storm. Now into a prolonged crisis of faith, Wesley longed to possess the faith these Moravians enjoyed so deeply.[1]
Wesley and the Moravians spent a great deal of time together while on their voyage to America. Having learning enough German to join the Moravians in congregational worship, there is evidence that Wesley preached at some of these services.[2] Geordan Hammond described Wesley’s relationship with the Moravians as “fairly cordial.”[3] Others have been far more positive about Wesley’s growing fondness for the Moravians, noting that while at sea he and the Moravians began to share the Lord’s Supper almost daily.[4] No matter the case, scholars agree that while on their voyage Wesley and the Moravians found several points of contact, both in theology and practice.
Notably, both shared an idealistic hope that in Georgia they would be able to reestablish a “purer” and more “primitive” Christianity.[5] Wesley was attracted to the Moravian ascetical practices and appreciated their band system whereby small groups of believers met to keep one another accountable.[6] Wesley would later implement this system into his own Methodist program with great success. At this time a rather rigid High Church Anglican, Wesley thought that the Moravians, like the Anglican Communion, had a plausible claim to apostolic succession. Thus he was convinced that their ministers were qualified to give the sacrament of communion in an efficacious manner.[7] Although the Moravians believed their ministers enjoyed apostolic succession, they disagreed with Wesley on the point that it was necessary for valid ministry.[8] Rather, the Moravians thought the pathway back to a “purer” more “primitive” Christianity was through cultivating a religion and piety of the heart.
Upon disembarking at Savannah in February of 1736, Wesley was soon greeted by Moravian Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenberg. Spangenberg wasted no time on pleasantries by asking Wesley rather pointedly about the state of his faith and whether he had experienced the “inner witness of the Holy Spirit” as an assurance of personal salvation in Christ.[9] Wesley could only answer these questions a little sheepishly, with rote doctrinal affirmations. However, Spangenberg remained impressed with Wesley and admired his spiritual earnestness. Likewise, Wesley considered Spangenberg a wise Christian. This encounter deepened Wesley’s sense of inadequacy over his spiritual condition,[10] while it probably strengthened his desire for a closer relationship with God.[11]
While in Savannah, Wesley continued to spend much of his time with the Moravians. He frequently attended Moravian services, took communion with them, and engaged in long and often intimate conversations with Spangenberg, Nitschman, John Toltschig and other Moravian leaders.[12] Their conversations were often on theological and missional topics. Both Wesley and the Moravians were interested in Patristics, Apostolic doctrine and discipline, as well as establishing a joint mission amongst the Indians.[13] Often Spangenberg and Wesley spoke at length about their respective views on the Lord’s Supper.[14]Sometimes, these conversations veered into rather personal territory for Wesley as he conferred with his trusted Moravian colleagues as to whether he should marry Sophia Hopkey.[15]
Overall, Wesley’s relationship with the Moravians in Savannah was close, sometimes even warm with Spangenberg and Nitschman, though at times he feuded with John Toltschig.[16] However, his cordial relations with the Moravians proved to be a source of frustration for the rather “Pietistic” Lutherans just six miles upriver in New Ebenezer, Georgia. These Lutherans were good “Halle Pietists” and thus saw the Moravians as “Johnny come latelys” in the Pietist movement as well as potential rivals for leadership of the Pietist cause. Wesley sometimes snubbed these Lutherans in favor of the Moravians due to his perception that they lacked apostolic credentials.[17]
John Wesley’s Contacts with the Moravians of England and Germany
By early 1738, Wesley was forced to return to his native England due to scandals stemming from his failed courtship with Sophia Hopkey, as well as a general distaste for his ministry on the part of many of his parishioners in Savannah. Despite Wesley’s mostly edifying contact with the Moravians of Savannah, he returned to England feeling defeated spiritually. He had not yet experienced the Moravian “religion of the heart” that he so admired. Upon his return to England, Wesley attached himself to the Moravians again by joining the Fetter Lane Society, which had recently formed under the leadership of the Moravian Peter Bohler. While not exclusively a Moravian religious society, it did include many Moravians.
On May 24, 1738, Wesley finally experienced a taste of Moravian piety that he had long desired. At a meeting of the Fetter Lane Society in Aldersgate, a borough of London, Wesley had an encounter with God that would change his life forever. It was here that he felt his heart “strangely warmed” and came to a personal recognition of Christ as his Savior.[18]
Wesley’s dramatic conversion ushered in the “honeymoon” period with the Moravians. Between 1738 and 1739 he continued to associate with the Moravians openly and freely. In August of 1738 Wesley visited Herrnhut, Germany, and was rather impressed with Moravian piety and organization.[19] While in Herrnhut Wesley conferred with Moravian spiritual luminaries Christian David and Johann Martin Dober, who further influenced Wesley with Moravian piety and spiritual practices. Despite a generally very high opinion of the Moravians, it seems that Wesley never developed a particularly favorable opinion of Count Zinzendorf, the patriarch of the Moravians.[20]
At Herrnhut Wesley was profoundly impressed with a Moravian funeral that was given for a small boy. He described in detail the “Gottesacker” (the graveyard or “God’s Acre”) as well as the liturgy performed for the funeral. Moved by the composure of the boy’s Father, Wesley was a little taken aback when he asked the Father after the funeral, “How do you find yourself?” The Father replied:
“Praised be the Lord, never better. He has taken the soul of my child to himself. I have seen, according to my desire, his body committed to holy ground. And I know that when it is raised again, both he and I shall be ever with the Lord.”[21]
Even so, Wesley was continually impressed with the Moravians deep faith in God. A faith so deep in fact, that they faced their own mortality, even the mortality of their children, with composure and joy, constantly sustained by the hope of the resurrection.
John Wesley’s Relationship with the Moravians begins to Sour
By the early 1740s a rift developed between Wesley and the Moravians due in part to theological differences and a clash of personalities between Zinzendorf and himself. It should be noted that theological differences between Wesley and the Moravians did not appear suddenly. Interestingly, Wesley expressed reservations about the Moravian teaching of “stillness” to the Lutherans of New Ebenezer years before.[22]
Anna Marie Johnson defined well the rather “quietistic” doctrine of “stillness” that many Moravians embraced wholeheartedly. She explained that the Moravian belief was formulated as a response to Christians wrestling with deep crises of faith:
“Those who are unsure about their faith…should not struggle to regain it by excessively reading the Bible or praying, but instead should ‘be still,’ including refraining from communion.”[23]
The Moravians taught that when the believer is unsure about their faith they should be “still” and wait for God to reveal himself through a mystical experience. Apparently, in the early 1740s this doctrine was being revived at the Fetter Lane Society and Wesley was deeply concerned. As a High Church Anglican, Wesley could not fathom how a mature Christian could counsel a wavering Christian to excuse themselves from the means of grace due to a temporary lack of faith.
Due to his concerns, Wesley met with his old friend Spangenberg to discuss the issue. However, their discussion only made the problem worse. According to Wesley, Spangenberg explained that “those who have faith are not bound to use the means of grace, for they are free from any law.”[24] Wesley found such doctrine deeply unsatisfactory, believing it contradicted both scripture and apostolic tradition. By mid-July he left the Fetter Lane Society and took with him about twenty people.[25]
Despite the rift, Wesley did not entirely abandon contact with the Moravians. Furthermore, the literature states that throughout the first six months of 1741 Spangenberg and Bohler actively tried to heal the divide. Their overtures to Wesley were unsuccessful and Zinzendorf decided to intervene himself, which probably only made the situation worse. Johnson states that Zinzendorf had certain personality flaws that often made him difficult to get along with. He could rarely see his own fault in any situation and was prone to irritability.[26] Finally, even though Zinzendorf would renounce his title as “Count” he continued to carry himself with the distinct air of a noble. This attitude did not agree with Wesley who could also be stubborn and irritable on occasion.[27]
To make matters worse, by the time Zinzendorf met with Wesley in London to try and heal the divide, he had already developed his own reservations about Wesley’s doctrine of Christian perfection. Rather than opening the meeting with their respective points of agreement, Zinzendorf critiqued Wesley’s doctrine of Christian perfection, sharply emphasizing “that a Christian is holy only in Christ and is as holy when first justified as years later.”[28] Furthermore, Zinzendorf rather baldly suggested that Wesley was not really all that interested in peace with the Moravians. These testy exchanges doomed Zinzendorf and Wesley’s meeting from the start. By September 1741, the Moravian Synodal Conference agreed that the Moravians and Wesley should continue to respect each another, but the era of close fellowship had come to an end.[29]
Conclusion
From 1735 to 1739 Wesley enjoyed close and often warm relations with the Moravians. During this period the Moravians influenced Wesley’s ministry, spirituality, and theology. Unfortunately, due to long-brewing theological differences, as well as personality clashes between Zinzendorf and Wesley, their relationship in ministry came to an end in 1740. However, the Moravian’s impact on Wesley did not disappear as he adopted much of what he learned from them to his spiritual life, theology, and Methodist program.[30]
First, Wesley’s system of bands, whereby Methodists gathered in small groups for the purpose of Christian edification, was deeply shaped by the Moravian’s system. After his experience at Aldersgate, Wesley became an exemplar of their “religion of the heart.”[31] His emphasis on personal relationship with God, so integral to the Moravian’s “religion of the heart,” is evident in the sermons and tracts he preached and wrote. Finally, Wesley’s desire to see the Church return to a “purer” and more “primitive” ideal was strengthened by the Moravians who likewise shared a deep appreciation for primitive Christianity.[32]
[1] David T. Morgan, “John Wesley’s Sojourn in Georgia Revisited,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly 64, no. 3 (Fall, 1980): 253.
[2] James Nelson, “John Wesley and the Georgia Moravians,” Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society 23, no. 3/4 (1984): 22-23.
[3] Geordan Hammond, “Versions of Primitive Christianity: John Wesley’s Relations with the Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1737,” Journal of Moravian History, no. 6 (2009): 34.
[4] Nelson, “John Wesley and the Georgia Moravians,” 21.
[5] Hammond, “Versions of Primitive Christianity: John Wesley’s Relations with the Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1737,” 35.
[6] Nelson, “John Wesley and the Georgia Moravians,” 22.
[7] Ibid., 26.
[8] Hammond, “Versions of Primitive Christianity: John Wesley’s Relations with the Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1737,” 48.
[9] Ibid., 26.
[10] Morgan, “John Wesley’s Sojourn in Georgia Revisited,” 254.
[11] Nelson, “John Wesley and the Georgia Moravians,” 26.
[12] Ibid., 29.
[13] Hammond, “Versions of Primitive Christianity: John Wesley’s Relations with the Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1737,” 42.
[14] Ibid., 50-53.
[15] Morgan, “John Wesley’s Sojourn in Georgia Revisited,” 257.
[16] Nelson, “John Wesley and the Georgia Moravians,” 36-39.
[17] Geordan Hammond, “John Wesley’s Relations with the Lutheran Pietist Clergy in Georgia,” in The Pietist Impulse In Christianity, ed. Christian T. Collins Winn, Christopher Gehrz, G. William Carlson, and Eric Holst (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2011), 139-143.
[18] Anna Marie Johnson, “Ecumenist and Controversialist: The Dual Legacy of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf,” Journal of Religious History 38, no. 2 (June 2014): 253.
[19] Ibid., 253.
[20] Ibid., 253.
[21] Kai Dose, “A Note on John Wesley’s visit to Herrnhut in 1738,” Wesley and Methodist Studies 7, no. 1 (2015): 118.
[22] Hammond, “Versions of Primitive Christianity: John Wesley’s Relations with the Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1737,” 57.
[23] Anna Marie Johnson, “Ecumenist and Controversialist: The Dual Legacy of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf,” 254.
[25] Ibid., 254.
[26] Ibid., 241.
[27] Ibid., 255.
[28] Ibid., 255.
[29] Ibid., 255.
[30] Hammond, “Versions of Primitive Christianity: John Wesley’s Relations with the Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1737,” 57.
[31] David Hempton, “John Wesley (1703-1791)” in The Pietist Theologians, ed. Carter Lindberg (Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 256-260.
[32] Thomas Buchan, “John Wesley and the Constantinian Fall of the Church: Historiographical Indications of Pietist Influences,” in The Pietist Impulse in Christianity, ed. Christian T. Collins Winn, Christopher Gehrz, G. William Carlson, and Eric Holst (Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2011), 160.
Bibliography
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Hammond, Geordan. “Versions of Primitive Christianity: John Wesley’s Relations with the Moravians in Georgia, 1735-1737,” Journal of Moravian History, no. 6 (2009): 31-60. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41179847
——— “John Wesley’s Relations with the Lutheran Pietist Clergy in Georgia.” in The Pietist Impulse In Christianity, edited by Christian T. Collins Winn, Christopher Gehrz, G. William Carlson, and Eric Holst, 135-145. Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2011.
Hempton, David. “John Wesley (1703-1791)” in The Pietist Theologians, edited by Carter Lindberg 256-271. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing, 2005.
Johnson, Anna Marie. “Ecumenist and Controversialist: The Dual Legacy of Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf,” Journal of Religious History 38, no. 2 (June, 2014): 241-262.
Morgan, Daniel T. “John Wesley’s Sojourn in Georgia Revisited,” The Georgia Historical Quarterly 64, no. 3 (Fall, 1980): 253-262. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40580644
Nelson, James. “John Wesley and the Georgia Moravians,” Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society 23, no. 3/4 (1984): 17-46. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41179412
