Joseph Mathews Legacy

Legacy Overview

Introduction of Joseph Wesley Mathews life (1911-1977), who served as director of the Institutes. The JWM talks page presents compilations of his talks: “Bending History” and “Selected Talks”, plus a link to his dissertation on John Wesley. This is followed by presentations he gave from 1946 until 1977.

JoeMathews

Yesterday

JWM 1977

Every day to a spirit man/woman is and must be the greatest day of their lives. To fail to recognize and then to acknowledge this is the real tragedy in a day and a world of tragedy.

Sometimes this greatness of the Day is obvious. It rises up to strike you. Other times it is deeply concealed and seems patently committed to undisclosing itself. Only after the fact, only on the other side of “soul searching”, deep reflection and intense pain, does it release its wonderous meaning – fearful and fascinating.

Yesterday was such a day. It seems that such apparently dark and arid and hellish days follow moments of light and joy. It is as if an intentional testing, trial is administered by life to teach one that only hope in God or God’s hope is really, truly, hope. It is the faith where there is no faith; the love where there is no love; the hope where there is no hope. This is the hope against hope. It is the divine hope. The transparent hope. The hope in the other world. The hope of God.

The files shared on this page tell the story of Joseph Wesley Mathews life from 1911-1977. Mathews was the director of the Order Ecumenical, Ecumenical Institute and Institute of Cultural Affairs from 1963-1977. Most of the files shared here were donated by the Institutes to the Wesley Theological Seminary in 2009. We are grateful for a partnership with the Seminary and the E.Stanley Jones Foundation to have this story shared with the world.

1932 – 1950

In this paper, How My Theology Has Changed in the Last Decade (December 19, 1946), Mathews lays out three periods of his life during the decade:

Pre-War Period – his studies at:
- - 1932 Lincoln Memorial University
  - 1935 Asbury College (one year)
  - 1937 Biblical Seminary, New York, NY (Broadway Temple Church)
  - 1938 Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, New Jersey
  - Christian Idea of God (outline), 1940s
  - Union Theological Seminary, New York New York
War Period – WWII Preaching Mission
Post-War Period
- - Following the war, Mathew studied at Union for nine months when he wrote about his changing theology.
  - Dissertation Draft, including Table of Contents and Introduction, Yale University 1948
  - Dissertation on John Wesley: Chapter 1: The Human Constitution, Chapter 2: The Life of Love, Chapter 3: The Knowledge of Faith, Concluding Remarks
  - Letter to H.R. Niebuhr Proposing Publishing a HRN book of essays, August 31, 1051

1960 Christian Faith and Life Community

South Caroline Methodist Student Conference brochure, Joseph Mathews speaker, October 1960

1963 Ecumenical Institute Director

1977 End of Life Reflections, September 7, 1977