Is there a Wesleyan political theology in the sense that there is a Catholic social teaching, a Lutheran Two Kingdoms concept, and a Calvinist notion of political covenant? If so, it is almost entirely unarticulated, even though Methodism politically in the affairs of our own nation has been as politically significant if not more so than the other major Christian traditions.
Now is a momentous time to address Wesleyan political witness and eschatology. We are facing a dramatic churning in USA and global United Methodism, the largest Methodist polity. Almost certainly the trajectory of at least part of what is now United Methodist political witness will shift in a new direction. There is a unique opportunity to rediscover and even possibly to implement essential Wesleyan principles for political witness. Such a rediscovery would benefit not only United Methodists and the wider Wesleyan family. It could be instructive for the wider Body of Christ, especially in America. Once great denominational traditions are collapsing and Christian political witness is, with all else political, increasingly polarized, not based on constant principles but harnessed to tribal commitments and anger.
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