The Wesleyan Quadrilateral

      Welcome to the blog! I hope that you are enjoying A Disciple’s Path and will comment on the parts of this week’s reading that have especially intrigued you.

      In the reading this week, I noted Rev. Harnish’s comment about United Methodist doctrine affirming the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.(Workbook p. 12) That caused me to go back to my class notes from a class at Asbury taught by Dr. Steve Harper in a lesson entitled “Wesley’s Hermeneutic: The Quadrilateral”. A hermeneutic is a method or theory of interpretation.

      The four parts of the quadrilateral are scripture, tradition, reason and experience. I had incorrectly thought of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral as an equilateral shape. Dr. Harper said that the most important part of the quadrilateral is scripture. He shared with us an analogy by Dr. Paul Chilcote of a wind chime with scripture as the major post, and with reason, tradition and experience striking the post at different times and for different reasons.

     Dr. Harper said that in considering a theology, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral is used as a tool. Today we tend to forget about tradition and over emphasize experience. He said that without tradition, we miss the great cloud of witnesses from history. Without tradition, if we move toward scripture/reason it creates intellectualism; if we move toward scripture/experience it creates subjectivism.

     Dr. Harper explained that scripture prevents theology from being humanistic, with man as the measure of all things. Tradition prevents theology from being all about us now (thinking we have the truth and we cannot have fellowship with you). Reason prevents theology from being superficial and unexamined and detached from the rest of life. Experience prevents theology from being impersonal, distant and unreal.

     As Rev. Harnish says, "(t)he convergence of these elements guides United Methodists in discussing important matters of biblical, doctrinal, and social concern." Workbook p. 12.