wfn.org | Duke professor in demand for celebrating John Wesley

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

April 30, 2003 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
    10-71B{247}

NOTE: A photo of Heitzenrater is available.

By David Reid*

DURHAM, N.C. (UMNS)-The Rev. Richard P. Heitzenrater probably knows more
about the founder of the Methodist movement than anyone in the world, which
may be why he is celebrating John Wesley's 300th birthday at least 17 times
this year.

Wesley tercentenary events are being held in Manchester, England; Oxford,
England; and Llandudno, Wales.	Lectures, conferences and courses on Wesley
will take place in Atlanta, Buffalo, Dallas, Toronto and points in between.
Heitzenrater, the Rev. William Kellon Quick professor of church history and
Wesley studies at Duke Divinity School, Durham, N.C., has been invited to
participate in all of them. 

In addition, Heitzenrater has organized an event at United Methodist-related
Duke for June 27-29, which will feature six pairs of scholars facing off in
debate and discussion on Wesley-related issues relevant to the contemporary
church.  Divinity school faculty will serve as moderators; Heitzenrater will
deliver the opening address.
 
"Instead of offering the typical academic papers, sessions will consist of
two leaders with differing opinions hashing out points of controversy in
their fields of expertise, looking for areas of consensus, and then
responding to questions from the audience," Heitzenrater said.	 "The focus
will be on issues that are of concern in the life of the church today and the
ways in which our Wesleyan heritage can help the church meet the challenges
of the 21st century."

Topics include Wesley's views on sacraments, Scripture, music, ethics, women
in the church, and theology.  Featured speakers include: the Rev. Theodore W.
Jennings Jr. of Chicago Theological Seminary; Amy G. Oden of Wesley
Theological Seminary, Washington; the Rev. Kenneth J. Collins of Asbury
Theological Seminary, Wilmore, Ky., and the Rev. Randy L. Maddox of Seattle
Pacific University. 

The conference will coincide with an exhibition of rare books and manuscripts
in the Baker Room of the divinity school library from June 2-July 11.  The
"Wesley in America" exhibition had its debut at Perkins School of Theology at
Southern Methodist University, Dallas. From Duke, it will move to Drew
University, Madison, N.J. Heitzenrater and Peter S. Forsaith of Brooks
University of Oxford, England, curated the show.

Heitzenrater has been investigating Wesley since 1968, when the Rev. Frank
Baker, a Duke Divinity School professor, suggested he try to decipher
Wesley's diaries.  A meticulous and fastidious Oxford scholar, Wesley
developed a form of code or cipher that grew ever more cryptic as a way to
keep secret the most personal entries.

Here was the opportunity to uncover the stories behind Wesley's romantic
involvement with 18-year-old Sophy Hopkey, his amateur attempts to cure
medical maladies, and the legendary disputes with his own followers.
Heitzenrater was immediately taken with the task and worked until 4 a.m. that
first night. 

Now, 35 years later, he estimates that he has transliterated 99.6 percent of
Wesley's diaries and doubts that the small portion he continues to puzzle
over will ever yield its secrets.

"I think that if Wesley came back and looked at the diaries, even he wouldn't
be able to figure some of it out," said Heitzenrater.

One mystery entailed six rows of numbers that ran across the bottom of
several diary pages under strange headings assumed to be abbreviations of
students' names. When Heitzenrater tied the notations to Wesley's laundress,
he realized that the headings referred to articles of clothing and the
numbers indicated how many of each he had sent out for cleaning. Wesley was
making sure that all of his laundry was being returned. 

Heitzenrater's study of Wesley blossomed during the years he spent working
with two of the major Wesley scholars of the 20th century -- Baker of Duke,
and the Rev. Albert Outler, who spent the majority of his career at Southern
Methodist University. 

"The two of them are really responsible for the Wesley Works Project," said
Heitzenrater, who now directs the project. But their different approaches led
to bitter disputes.

"Unfortunately, Albert lost some battles early in the game and moved off to
the side of the leadership team. He was more a modernist and wanted to see
Wesley's theology tied to the life of the church," Heitzenrater said. "Frank
Baker was an antiquarian historian who wanted to see what Wesley looked like
in his own day.  Even on matters such as punctuation of texts in the Works,
there were differences of opinion.  I got caught in the middle when there
were knock down battles."

Their differences began in 1960 when Outler published a volume of Wesley's
writings with little reflection and critique from colleagues prior to
publication.

When Baker saw the book, he wrote Outler a letter.  "As I recall," said
Heitzenrater, "it was eight pages, single spaced, explaining all the mistakes
that Albert had made."

Not fully swayed by either man's methods, Heitzenrater has pursued a balanced
approach to scholarship because "that's the Wesleyan-Anglican traditional
way."

Wesleyan studies is a narrow field, and Heitzenrater has worked within that
reality. In a decade at Duke, he has mentored only one doctoral student who
positioned himself specifically as a Wesleyan scholar.	Because of a paucity
of positions in the field, he has counseled others to do a dissertation or
special study on Wesley or  to train as a theologian, ethicist, patristic
scholar, or almost anything else.

What's left to accomplish for the leading Wesleyan scholar of his time?
Heitzenrater is using his Luce Foundation fellowship to work on a book of
Wesley's utterances, such as "I felt my heart strangely warmed" and "The
world is my parish."

The latter phrase is widely interpreted as a call to global evangelism. 
However, Heitzenrater posits that Wesley was laying out the justification for
preaching in another person's territory, a concept that broke down
established barriers and encouraged revivalist preaching in both England and
the American colonies. Once again, his detective work will help set the
record straight.

For more information or to register for Wesley at 300, go to
www.divinity.duke.edu/learningforlife/Events/wesley.htm.)

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*Reid is the director of communications at Duke Divinity School.

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United Methodist News Service
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