This week I want to attempt to describe the conservative position on the incarnation, atonement, resurrection, human nature, scripture and Christian ethics. This book is dated but still useful. I continue in my description of the three groups in United Methodism with an analysis of the conservative position.
Conservatives are much less confident of human reason and experience than are liberals.
They ground their theology primarily in scripture and the teachings of the church, especially the early church. Conservatives tend to stress the transcendence of God more than the other two groups and are much more resistant to change in theology or ethics. Conservatives believe Jesus was literally born of a virgin. They believe he was both fully human and fully divine. They believe he was unique in all of human history and represents one of the three Persons of the Trinity.