Abstract

Haartman's analysis of ecstatic experience in early Methodism is contextualized within a brief review of the history of the movement and the theological assertions that underlay these religious behaviors. Wesley emphasized individual, as opposed to institutional religion and affrmed inductive as contrasted with deductive theology. "Sanctification," Wesley's term for personality transformation, is seen as positive ego development rather than regressive splitting of the ego. Maslow's "peak experience" is affrmed as a valid model for analyzing ecstatic behaviors. Methodism no longer emphasizes such forms of religious expression