A MAN OF ONE BOOK

John Wesley wrote: “I want to know one thing, the way to heaven…. God Himself has condescended to teach me the way…. He has written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the Book of God! I have it; here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri (a man of one book).”  (From “An Appeal to Men of Reason and Religion”)

Wesley called himself “a man of one book.” The Latin phrase homo unius libri originated with Thomas Aquinas and demonstrated Wesley’s saturation in the writings of the early church fathers. Wesley applied that term not only to himself, but also to [the early Methodists at Oxford].

It wasn’t literally true. Wesley was one of the best-read and most widely published Christians of his era. When Benjamin Ingham asked for a method for his spiritual growth, Wesley gave him a list of classic writers of Christian devotion for use in his small group.

He was, however, a “man of one book” in that nothing took priority over reading Scripture. In his “Complete English Dictionary” (1753), Wesley defined a Methodist as “one that lives according to the method laid down in the Bible.” He instructed Ingham to test everything he read or did by what he found in Scripture. Wesley knew that we can be “spiritual” without the Bible, but we can never be growing disciples of Jesus Christ without disciplined study of and reflection on the written Word. 

-- James A. Harnish in “A Disciple’s Path: Deepening Your Relationship with Christ and the Church”

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