Employing fresh, innovative readings, Edgardo Colon-Emeric examines and underscores the centrality of the concept of perfection for the theologies of Thomas Aquinas and John Wesley--and finds them, surprisingly, largely complementary.
Utilizing the image of a "kneeling ecumenism," he offers a practical account of how ecumenical conversations can move forward. At a time when many Methodists struggle to understand Catholicism and many Catholics know little of Wesley and Methodism, this stimulating work provides the church as a whole a communal grammar of holiness, in demonstrating how the theologies of perfection of Aquinas and Wesley have significant messages for both groups.
Edgardo A. Colón-Emeric is Assistant Research Professor of Theology and Hispanic Studies, Duke University Divinity School. He lives in Bahama, North Carolina.
This carefully crafted and original work will help Protestants to understand Aquinas, and Catholics John Wesley, better, and thus both to approach one another 'by drawing attention to the primacy of prayer and the ministry of the saints (p 183).'
--Paul Ellingworth "Journal of Theological Studies"This study will not only be useful for the technical analysis it gives to a significant aspect of Methodist and Catholic witness to the common tradition, but it will also provide a stimulus for further studies verifying the agreement claimed in the Joint Declaration and potentially enriching the sharing of a spiritual life to which both Wesley and Aquinas were committed in their own time and historical contexts.
--Jeffrey Gros, F.S.C, Memphis Theological Seminary "Journal of Ecumenical Studies"