“I fear, wherever riches have increased, the essence of religion has decreased in the same proportion. Therefore I do not see how it is possible, in the nature of things, for any revival of true religion to continue long. For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality, and these cannot but produce riches. But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world in all its branches. How then is it possible that Methodism, that is, a religion of the heart, though it flourishes now as a green bay tree, should continue in this state? For the Methodists in every place grow diligent and frugal; consequently they increase in goods. Hence they proportionately increase in pride and anger, in the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life. So, although the form of religion remains, the spirit is swiftly vanishing away. Is there no way to prevent this—this continual decay of pure religion? We ought not to prevent people from being diligent and frugal; we must exhort all Christians to gain all they can, and to save all they can; that is, in effect, to grow rich.”
These words were written by the founder of Methodism, John Wesley in the eighteenth century. They have been applied by the German Sociologist Max Weber to help explain the rise of modern capitalism in Western Europe. However, as I read these words, something much deeper caught my attention. While Wesley’s main point is precisely what Weber pointed out, the deeper meaning that can be drawn from the application of Wesley’s thesis bothered me because we have seen it before and I fear, we may see it again.
According to Wesley, religious revivals have unexpected results. In Wesley’s case, the unexpected results were riches and worldliness. We may well take his point and make application to our own situation as Christian families and educators. Religious revival brought about a tremendous increase in diligence and frugality in the men and women who experienced the revival in their lives. This was exactly what Wesley wanted to see and he was quite please with these results. However, this degree of diligence and frugality had also produced a situation of those men and women becoming extremely wealthy. This great increase in wealth was producing a rise in worldliness, which was not something Wesley was happy about. His concern was how to cultivate the diligence and frugality without bringing about the worldliness. It seems we may have the same problem.
We are in the process of attempting a revival of education according to classical methods. This will, if we are successful, bring about an increased diligence in our students and an increase in knowledge. Are there any unexpected results we might expect from this process? It should be obvious to us that an increase in knowledge could just as easily bring about a very different, but equally dangerous, worldliness than Wesley experienced. The last thing we desire and intend by our increase in knowledge is another Enlightenment of the sort that happened in the eighteenth century. That Enlightenment, though characterized by many godly men, took on a character of worldliness and secularism that we do not desire. Is there any way to prevent this? Must we travel the same path that Wesley traveled? Has his fear been borne out in history?
First, Wesley’s fear has most definitely been borne out by the forces of history. Christians today are among the most affluent people in the world, and also among the worldliest. We prance about in materialism and superficialism and care naught for the increase of the Gospel. I do not think that we are doomed to Wesley’s pessimism. The task and the tools are education. As we are diligent about our finances (which may lead us into temptation) we must be ever more diligent about our education (which may lead us both to and away from temptation). Our education is for an increase in knowledge, but it is of a particular kind. We educate for an increase in the knowledge of God. We must be ever on guard against worldliness of any kind. Knowledge may puff up, so we must ever be humble to accept correction. If we are not, we may soon face Wesley’s situation and find that the work was destroyed from underneath.
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