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Persona #133

John Wesley

1703–1791
Anglican priest, founder of Methodism

Christian perfection through prevenient grace, free will, and the means of grace — the world is my parish

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where personas disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid (32 attributes) is shown.

Attribute John Wesley
Time · Extent Both
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Both
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature implicit
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality implicit
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality implicit
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Personal
Observer · Moral Authority Scripture
Observer · Theological Method Conversionist
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity implicit

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each persona's writings reveal about their stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

John Wesley

"Both" — divine eternity and created salvation-historical time. Non-deterministic: prevenient grace enables genuinely free response.

Space

John Wesley

"Both." "The world is my parish" — Wesley's missionary cosmopolitanism.

Matter

John Wesley

Substantival, conserved. The Methodist sacramental practice (Eucharist as a converting ordinance) takes material elements seriously.

Observer

John Wesley

Single embodied person, plural among others. Active in cooperation with grace (synergism against monergism). Personal metaphysical agency: the Trinitarian God of Anglican-Methodist confession. Theological method: Conversionist — the new birth as central.

Energy

John Wesley

Conventional 18th-century.

Information

John Wesley

Conserved at both scales.

Internal Tensions

Where each persona's working synthesis strains against itself.

John Wesley

Wesley's Arminian theology was sharply contested by his Calvinist contemporaries (Whitefield, the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion). The doctrine of Christian perfection in particular has been the most-controversial aspect: Reformed critics read it as a denial of remaining sin in the believer; Methodist defenders insist it is a doctrine of perfection in love, not of sinless perfection, attainable in this life. The institutional separation of American Methodism from the Church of England in 1784 happened during Wesley's lifetime; British Methodism formally separated only after his death.