예배학 자료 John Wesley's Eucharistic Theology as a Context for Christian Spiritual Formation

John Wesley's Eucharistic Theology as a Context for Christian Spiritual Formation

/ Huh, Do-Hwa (Professor of Liturgics & Homiletics, Keimyung University)

* 본 연구 논문은「한국기독교신학논총」 51권(2007):233-256에 실려 있음.

Introduction

John Wesley had the advantages of living in a time after the Reformation controversies and the legacy of the Anglican tradition in the eucharistic thought and devotion. The Reformers'--Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and Cranmer's--emphasis on communion rather than enactment as the Sacrament's reason of being and their stress on the communal dynamics of the celebration are their lasting gifts to all sacramental traditions. In terms of the polemic climate of controversy and their own experience of the Eucharist, the Reformers' key theological question which was at stake was simply whether there is a real encounter with the saving reality of Christ in the Eucharist which drives from its specific sacramental character.

It is good to be reminded by the Reformers that the real issue remains the who question (the relation between Christ and the believer) not the how question (the explanation of the body's relation to the bread) of the Eucharist. Nevertheless, the how question, though secondary, is still relevant and may influence our apprehension of the reality (the who question). Thus, we may still ask, how sacramental is the Sacrament to be? In liturgical terms, what profile are the bread and wine to have? Or, in more theological terms, can we point to a specific gift and/or special function to the Eucharist which derives from its sacramental character? In this light, how John Wesley handled the questions and interpreted the answers given by the Reformers need to be considered.

In this work I shall deal with the eucharistic theology and spirituality of John Wesley, considering his thoughts and experience of the Eucharist. Wesley's greatest contribution-his greatest challenge-to the church today owes to his urgent insistence on frequent celebration of the Eucharist as a key ingredient in spiritual renewal.¹⁾ As we deal with more specific points regarding Wesley's understanding of the Eucharist as a means of grace, we recognize that it is expressed as a context for Christian spiritual formation, guidance, and care. To Wesley, the Eucharist as a means of grace has a functional superiority to the other means of grace.

That Wesley regarded his use of the Eucharist and the other means of grace as ministry for the cure of souls is plain not only from what he did but also from what he said. He quite accurately assessed the negligence of the eucharistic celebration as a means of grace in his day, because it meant the spiritual and sacramental malaise in the eighteenth-century Protestant church. So important was eucharistic practice to Wesley that he published the sermon on constant communion in 1733 ("The Duty of Constant Communion") and reissued it with the brief note in 1788. He published a collection of 166 eucharistic hymns in 1745. Moreover, he communed at least every four to five days (72 times a year), daily when possible.2) We know from Wesley's personal practice and demand constant communion to his flock just how important frequent communing was to form his own and Christian spirituality.

B. Sources

What is distinctive about Wesley's approach to the eucharist is that his understanding of the eucharist is expressed within the framework of the unique theological vision of the Christian life. Wesley's eucharistic theology emerges from the variety of expressions and influences that had come to bear on his life. This was expressed in few sources where we find Wesley's explicit understandings of the Eucharist. ... (중략) 
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1) See Albert C. Outler, John Wesley (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), 333.
2) For statistics on Wesley's eucharistic practice, see Thomas H. Barratt, "The Place of the Lord's Supper in Early Methodism," The London Quarterly Review 140 (1923): 60; John C. Bowmer, The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper in Early Methodism (London: Dacre Press, 1951), Ch. 4; and, more detailed, Laurence H. Stookey, Eucharist: Christ's Feast with the Church (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993), 161.