Foundations of Wesleyan Arminian Theology

In his book Foundations of Wesleyan Arminian Theology Mildred Bangs Wynkoop compares Calvinist Theology with Weleyan-Arminian theology, and multiple offshoots of the two including Neo-Calvinism, Wesleyan Calvinism, Calvinistic Wesleyanism and others. The first chapter of Wynkoop’s book presents a history of the doctrine of personal predestination. He starts with an explanation of turmoil and factions within the church. He then moves on to discuss the conclusions and teachings of Pelagius and Augustine. He draws the lines back to their pre conclusions about humanity and God. In the second chapter Wynkoop focuses more on the historical influence of Augustine’s views and beliefs as they are concerned with Calvinist theology. Wynkoop connects the theological developments of Calvin’s doctrines to the conclusions of Augustine’s doctrines and points out the biblical issues the presuppositions that Calvin used created. Here he moves into Arminius and his theological upbringing and growth. Wynkop includes sections on Beza and the supralapsarian’s and starts to detail their theological errors. He presents a short biography of influential events in Arminius’ life to show how his past would eventually influence his views and his theology. He often refutes the non-Arminian view using the words of Arminius’ himself. Wynkoop dedicates several pages to a summary of Arminius’ view as they concern the problem of predestination. Wynkoop summarizes Arminius’ view saying “Arminius stressed an interpretation of predestination which understood God’s race as strengthening moral life rather than weakening it,” he goes on to say that Arminius put Christ at the center of theology and desired to return the church to it’s biblical roots. He credits Arminius for “laying the foundation” for holiness.

The second major component of his book breaks down the different views and combinations of Calvinism and Weleyan-Arminianism. He starts the section off with a summary of the synod of Dort and the Remonstrants’ five propositions. Then moves on to explain the views of combination groups that have formed between Arminianism and Calvinism. He supports a Wesleyan-Arminian view and spends this section deconstructing the alternative views often pointing out their scriptural short comings.

Wynkoop then moves to answer two questions “how much moral responsibility men may possess without threatening the absolute sovereignty of God? And with how much responsibility did a sovereign God endow the men He created?” Wynkoop then goes on the point out the difficulties “raised by Calvinistic predestination” that are “between God’s will and man’s will.” He summarizes that Calvin “emphasized the majestic power of God” and “Arminius emphasized the justice of god,” while Wesley “emphasized the love of God. Wynkoop then tackles the influence of the Holy Spirit and its influence on the morality of Wesleyan and Calvinist theology. It’s at this point Wynkoop focuses on sanctification and holiness. He concludes “sanctification is an essential element of salvation and must engage the total nature of man. Then he says “sanctification is God’s method of healing a soul.