Belief Matters: United Methodisms Doctrinal Standards

by Charles Yrigoyen Jr.

Belief matters! This book is written for two purposes. The first is to reminds us that what we believe does matter. The second is to explain the doctrinal standards of The United Methodist Church--matters of our belief. Intended for use by both laypersons and clergy, this book describes and exposits the four official Doctrinal Standards of The United Methodist Church. The standards will be explored in the following order: Explanatory Notes, Sermons, Articles of Religion, Confession of Faith. The book also includes a study guide, a glossary, and suggestions for further reading.

144 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2001

Reviews

[Richard Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Belief Matters covers the four doctrinal standards of The United Methodist Church: John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the New Testament (which he evidently wrote the 500 pages over six weeks when he was too sick to preach), John Wesley's standard sermons as included in the first four volumes of the Bicentennial Edition of the Works of John Wesley (151 sermons), The Articles of Religion (a lightly edited statement of faith that John Wesley gave the American church), and the Confession of Faith (which we included as a standard when the Methodist Church joined with the Evangelical United Brethren). Each source is explored through its history, text (or portions of texts in the case of the notes and sermons), and an analysis of the standard's usefulness. While it is reasonable that applications of these standards will change over the centuries, and Wesley was a very fallible human with theological blindspots, it seemed that Yrigoyen was sometimes a little too glib with criticisms. They are standards after all, and while a legalistic dogmatism is inappropriate we are not free to simply consider them historical documents (which Yrigoyen does not do). Nor, are we free to consider elements inappropriate or irrelevant for today without very good and with wide church agreement (which Yrigoyen flirts with doing). Overall, the book is an important contribution in our antinomian contemporary denominational culture.

[Will Waller · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was assigned to me to read for my licensing class back in the summer of 2012. With an uninspiring premise (let's go through all the doctrinal standards in the UMC, boy howdy), this was an easy read and helpful. Most helpful was explaining the history and the doctrinal points of the EUB confession. It is the least well-known and oft neglected piece of Methodism's doctrinal children.

The book first explores the history of each then works bit by bit through the doctrinal standards. The Sermons of Wesley it cannot explore in full but highlights which of the sermons influence the church the most. For the Notes on the NT, the book explains more about how influential this text used to be to the circuit riders as their primary understanding in preaching the texts.

My hope is that others will read this book and understand how vital it is to ground ourselves in this doctrine. But we must also know and believe that we can have fluidity as United Methodists, "to think and let think" (J-dubs).

Read if you're a UM nerd or if you're in a waiting room at a United Methodist church and there's nothing else to do except sin.