Book Review – Belief Matters: United Methodism’s Doctrinal Standards

In “Belief Matters: United Methodism’s Doctrinal Standards”, Charles Yrigoyen, Jr. presents a broad overview of the historical documents that make up the doctrinal standards of the United Methodist Church. In the “Introduction”, Yrigoyen gives a brief explanation of the importance of doctrine. He says doctrine helps us understand the biblical message in a more clear and organized way; provides a basis for the way we live our lives; is necessary in articulating our faith; provides a foundation for the community of faith we participate in; and protects us from “false and subversive teachings.” (11)

Yrigoyen quickly moves to the doctrinal standards themselves. He begins with an overview of John Wesley’s Explanatory Notes on the New Testament. After a brief look at the historical context that gave rise to the Notes, he then highlights many of notes themselves in an attempt to give the reader a glimpse of John Wesley’s theology that runs throughout. What emerges, for Yrigoyen, is a Bibliocentric theology that is concerned primarily with humanity’s estrangement from God, God’s saving work in Christ, and the fruit of Christian faith – holiness of heart and life. Also evident in the Notes is a well developed Christology that deals with who Jesus is and what his life, death, and resurrection mean.

Next, Yrigoyen deals with John Wesley’s standard sermons. Here he offers a cursory examination of the 151 sermons originally used as guidelines for those preaching in “Methodist buildings” during the early days of the Methodist movement. As with the Notes, Yrigoyen provides selected excerpts from the sermons to show the basic theological themes found throughout the entire collection. He highlights the central themes as original sin, prevenient grace, justification by faith, new birth, assurance (knowing we are children of God), and holiness of heart and life.

Yrigoyen treats the final two doctrinal standards, “The Articles of Religion of the Methodist Church” and “The Confession of Faith of the Evangelical United Brethren Church”, in similar ways. He includes the entire text of each document with interspersed comments between sections of related material offering an explanation of the theological underpinnings that contributed to the development of the text itself. He groups “The Articles” into five major categories: The Triune God, Scripture, Sin and Salvation, Church and Sacraments, and the Christian in Society; and provides commentary between each section. While “The Confession” contains similar themes, Yrigoyen treats each numbered confession independently.

Yrigoyen concludes with a summary of the central doctrines found throughout the four doctrinal standards. He also urges us to read and consider carefully “Our Theological Task” as found in The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church.

Early on, in the preface of the book, Yrigoyen states that he had two purposes in mind when writing the book: first, “to remind us that what we believe does matter” and second, “to explain the doctrinal standards of The United Methodist Church.”(7) In a relatively short work, 128 pages, he has made an admirable attempt to do just that. While it would be impossible to do an in-depth study of the doctrinal standards in such a short work, he does however provide a solid foundation for further study and reflection. He spends just enough time covering the historical background of the standards to give the reader a sense of how the standards evolved, leaving the reader with a good starting point for further reading and study. Spending more time on the theological content of the standards, he allows the reader to fully appreciate the scope and breadth of John Wesley’s theology. With the lack of in-depth treatment of the standards however, the “Suggested Reading” sections at the end of each chapter were welcome additions.

This book is a good starting place for any United Methodist who has been confronted with the oft repeated statement that, “United Methodists can believe anything.” If we take seriously the “doctrinal standards”, this is easily seen as not being the case at all. After reading Yrigoyen’s work and becoming more familiar with our doctrinal distinctives, I am becoming increasingly aware of our failure as United Methodists to adequately equip our congregations.

It is difficult to understand how we could have let our congregations become so totally uninformed when it comes to our Wesleyan heritage. I have found that very few Methodists can even tell me where the name Methodist came from. Fewer still have any idea what “prevenient” means. This is an indictment, not of the laity, but of the leadership who have allowed “Methodist” to become little more than a name. Yrigoyen’s book will be an indispensible tool in equipping my congregation for their “theological task.”

I am reminded by Yrigoyen however, that teaching doctrine is only part of our task as pastors. If the connection isn’t made between head and heart, then we have missed the mark. He said…