Reflecting the Divine Image: Christian Ethics in Wesleyan Perspective

John Wesley strived for a theology--a theology both written and lived--that delicately balanced sanctification and justification. He hoped to uphold both faith alone and holy living. Sadly, says theologian H. Ray Dunning, many of Wesley’s followers have not maintained that balance. Some have tended toward legalism, some toward a preoccupation with personal holiness, and others toward social activism with little theological grounding. Dunning believes Wesleyanism possesses the resources to help all Christians reflect the divine image, and to do so holistically, in all aspects of life. His book incisively examines issues of ethical methodology and then shows how an ethic based on the Imago Dei shapes our relation to God, to one another and to the earth. This introduction to and overview of ethics will enlighten and benefit Christians in all traditions, not despite but especially because it is written in the true Wesleyan tradition--passionate, profoundly faithful and plainspoken.

H. Ray Dunning, widely recognized as a premier Wesleyan theologian, was for more than three decades Professor of Theology at Trevecca Nazarene University (Nashville). He is a former president of the Wesleyan Theological Society. His books include the systematic theology ’Grace, Faith and Holiness.’