Wesleyan Quadrilateral

Wesleyan Quadrilateral Jamie Morrow Azusa Pacific University

Wesleyan Quadrilateral

To be honest, I did not grow up with any kind of religious affiliation. To this day, I still cannot associate myself with any specific denomination of Christianity or any other religious group. My journey into Christianity actually began when I met my husband, who grew up in what I would consider to be a very Christian household. With that being said, considering how undeveloped my knowledge of the Bible is, it astonishes me how much my life circles around the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, especially with Scripture. When I was first asked if I used all four domains of the Quadrilateral, my immediate response was No. How could I use scripture when I knew so little about it? It did not seem rational. Tradition, reason, and experience seemed to be more of a sensible response. After all, these were three topics I have grappled in all my life. Low and behold, I was wrong. After our class discussion I realized that they are all intertangled. I realized that even though I do not know the bible well, the scripture has been around me my entire life, just incognito. For example, all the positive influences in my life who raised me to give and/or show respect, treat others how you want to be treated, be thankful, help those less fortunate, and I could go on and on. I realized tonight, that those lessons are all from scripture. This has led me to change my original answer as I realized that yes, I use all four of them. I presume that I still use reason and experience the most but, they are always balanced with scripture and tradition. There is really no way out of it. My math brain explains it this way: 1(reason) + 1(experience) +1 (scripture) +1 (tradition) = 1 (whole person). All four subgroups have distinctly different approaches to the whole unit. Yet, they are still linked. So how might one distinguish between them? For me, in order to distinguish between Experience and Reason we would not know how to be rational if we did not have the experiences to support rationality. For instance, one subgroup (experience) happens to you, and

Wesleyan Quadrilateral the other subgroup (reason) is contrived from that happening. Next comes the question of, how does one distinguish between tradition and scripture? It is my belief, these two also overlap however, they are much easier to asunder in comparison to reason and experience. Considering that scripture contains a formidable amount of tradition, at first glance, leads me to gather that they are inseparable. Then, when I weigh my reasoning based on my experience, I realize that they can be more palpable to separate. You see, even though the Bible is in entrenched with tradition, tradition is less entrenched with scripture. Take for instance, fireworks on 4th of July, birthday parties, leaving cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve, or even visiting my parents every

year on spring break. None of these traditions come from scripture yet, none the less, they are all traditions. When considering which unit or quadrant I rely on most, I would say the Experience quadrant. Considering my lack of Biblical knowledge and/or Scripture thanks to my upbringing, and the fact that I have very few Traditions in my family (which directly correlates with the lack of religion in my upbringing) tends to put those two quadrants in second place. Adding to that, the basis in which I consider Reason to come from Experience only goes to demonstrate that for me, Experience is the quadrant that I draw most heavily from. It is ludicrous how all of this can sneak up on some so unsuspecting such as myself. It makes me smile when I reflect on how much scripture has played a part in my life without me even suspecting. I have realized that scripture is the Hidden Agenda even for those who deny it. I cannot help but to flash back into our nations history and take into account that our country was based on the freedom of religion. It is the foundation for our social construct. Whether we like it or not, we have all grown up in a land where we are taught to treat our neighbors as we want to be treated (Matthew 22:34-40), and help those who are less fortunate (Acts 20:35). I am a prime

Wesleyan Quadrilateral example of how Hidden Scripture has changed a persons life. Without me even realizing it, God was working through other people to bring me closer to him, and for that I am grateful.