Nazarene Theological Seminary

Pictured here, left to right: Dr. Steve McCormick and Dr. Geoffrey Wainwright.

September 25-26, 2008, Nazarene Theological Seminary hosted the Mercer Lectures in Christian Holiness, featuring Dr. Geoffrey Wainwright. Dr. Wainwright is an ordained minister of the British Methodist Church and teaches at Duke Divinity School where he occupies the Robert Earl Cushman chair of Christian Theology.

Dr. Wainwright is known for his ecumenical work. He has lectured around the world, and written many books. The most influential book among Wainwright’s works is Doxology: The Praise of God in Worship, Doctrine and Life (Oxford University Press, 1980). Dr. Wainwright’s more recent books include Embracing Purpose: Essays on God, the World and the Church (Epworth Press, 2007) and Leslie Newbigin: A Theological Life (Oxford University Press, 2000).

Throughout the lecture series, Dr. Wainwright discussed ‘holiness of heart and life,’ as taught, sung, and practiced by John and Charles Wesley. He emphasized that holiness begins with God, and is both possible and required by God's action in Christ on our behalf. Dr. Wainwright's terminology "participative imitation" describes holiness as God's work, and our work, as we participate in the triune God who enables our response.  Dr. Wainwright also discussed various pairings of how we should understand holiness as inward and outward, individual and communal, in spirit and in body, and cultivating works of piety and works of mercy; he stressed that our holiness is with and for others.

When Dr. Steve McCormick, pictured above, was asked to comment about Dr. Wainwright, he said, "The late Dr. Albert C. Outler worked tirelessly to ensure that our ‘Wesleyan-Methodist’ heritage was voiced and recognized at Vatican II. Today, it would be no stretch of the imagination, or even a hint of exaggeration to suggest that Dr. Geoffrey Wainwright is the single most important living theologian today within the Methodist, Wesleyan, and Holiness traditions of the Church who has not only sustained and embodied much of Outler’s legacy, but has gone well beyond him to make sure that the most entrusted gifts of the Holy Spirit to our Wesleyan communities of faith, and the particular stories of our saints are heard, accepted, and integrated in the ongoing work of ecumenism. Over the years, Wainwright’s contributions to ecumenism have been substantively numerous and creative, but perhaps his boldest and most insightful contribution to ecumenism is to insist that the Church ‘canonize’ John and Charles Wesley as saints of the Church.”

The Mercer Lectures on the Doctrine of Holiness began at NTS in 1951 and are sponsored by the Mercer family in honor of their mother, Laura Elizabeth Dewald Mercer.