Recent Developments in Medical Ethics in the Methodist Tradition

Abstract

The spiritual and ecclesiastical descendants of John Wesley have a significant history of concern for individual and social well-being and justice, including health and health care. The Oxford-based group organized by John and Charles Wesley were somewhat derisively dubbed “Methodist” for their methodical approaches to devotional piety, personal morality, and what would now be considered matters of social justice. These “fathers of Methodism…ministered to the physical, intellectual and social needs of the people to whom they preached the gospel of personal redemption” ([4], p. 3). Sometimes taking “forthright positions on controversial issues involving Christian principles”, “early Methodists expressed their opposition to the slave trade, to smuggling, and to the cruel treatment of prisoners” ([27], p. 15). Even though the Methodist Episcopal Church, organized in the United States by the followers of Wesley, was to produce a number of divisions over racial, doctrinal, and ecclesial issues, the general tradition of “Methodism” remains one characterized by a combination of concerns for personal “holiness” or spiritual growth, and personal and societal welfare.