The Articles of Religion are an official doctrinal statement of Methodism—particularly American Methodism and its offshoots. John Wesley abridged the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, removing the Calvinistic parts among others, reflecting Wesley's Arminian theology.[1]
The resulting Twenty-five Articles were adopted at the Christmas Conference of 1784,[2] and are found in the Books of Discipline of Methodist Churches, such as Chapter I of the Doctrines and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and paragraph 103 of the United Methodist Church Book of Discipline.[3] They have remained relatively unchanged since 1808, save for a few additional articles added in later years in both the United Methodist tradition and Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection, among other Methodist connexions.[4][5]
Among the items deleted by Wesley as unnecessary for Methodists were articles on Of Works Before Justification, which in Calvinism are largely discounted, but in Methodism lauded; Of Predestination and Election, which Wesley felt would be understood in a Calvinist manner that the Methodists rejected; and Of the Traditions of the Church, which Wesley felt to be no longer at issue.
