Editing Twenty-five Articles (section)

{{Short description|Official doctrinal statement of Methodism}}
{{Methodism |doctrine}}

The '''Articles of Religion''' (also called the '''Twenty-five Articles of Religion''' or '''Twenty-five Articles''') 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 [[Calvinism|Calvinistic]] parts among others, reflecting Wesley's [[Arminian]] theology.<ref name="Melton2005">{{cite book|last=Melton|first=J. Gordon|title=Encyclopedia of Protestantism|date=1 January 2005|publisher=Infobase Publishing|language=en |isbn=9780816069835|page=48|quote=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. }}<!--|access-date=26 May 2015--></ref><ref name="Phelan">{{cite book |last1=Phelan |first1=Macum |title=Handbook of All Denominations |date=1916 |publisher=Smith & Lamar |page=113 |language=en |quote=A discipline was adopted, contianing the General Rules and Articles of Religion, abridged by Wesley from the Thirty-Nine Articles, the new form being stripped of all distinctly Catholic and Calvinistic elements, and a liturgy, also prepared by Wesley.}}</ref>

The resulting Twenty-five Articles were adopted at the [[Christmas Conference]] of 1784,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Jonas |first1=W. Glenn |title=Religious Traditions of North Carolina: Histories, Tenets and Leaders |date=9 October 2018 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-7646-3 |page=178 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c7VqDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT186 |language=en}}</ref> 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]]''.<ref name="AME">{{cite web|url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/church/ame/ame.html|title=Doctrines and Discipline of the African Methodist Episcopal Church|year=1817|publisher=Richard Allen and Jacob Tapsico|language=en|access-date=27 July 2018}}</ref> 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 [[connexionalism|connexions]].<ref name="AWMC2014">{{cite book|title=The Discipline of the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection (Original Allegheny Conference)|year=2014|publisher=[[Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection]]|location=[[Salem, Ohio|Salem]]|language=en|page=11}}</ref><ref name="KurianLamport2016">{{cite book |last1=Kurian |first1=George Thomas |last2=Lamport |first2=Mark A. |title=[[Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States]] |date=10 November 2016 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-4432-0 |page=1808 |language=English}}</ref>