by Tim Isbell, March 2024
The Wesleyan Quadrilateral is a way of making godly decisions based on four questions.
What does Scripture say that might guide my decision?
What does Tradition say about it?
What does Reason say about it?
And what does my Experience with God say about it?
Scripture is crystal clear on some topics, such as do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not worship idols, salvation is by faith, forgiveness is based on Jesus' work on the cross, and so on. In such areas, scripture is the only leg of the quadrilateral we need.
But many topics are less binary. The best practice is to gather a wide range of scriptures around the issue, weighing the New Testament and especially Jesus' teachings more than the Old Testament, and look for a preponderance of evidence. Don't just trust your own reading, currate some trusted sources, such as commentaries and Christian teachers, to help you understand the scriptures in their context and get help applying them to your present situation. Beyond that, go to the other three legs below.
Tradition gets a bad rap in American culture but remains extremely valid. By tradition, I mean our faith is informed by what the Church has come to believe throughout history. It is the accumulated wisdom across many generations of Christ's followers. An example is how the traditions of the Apostles and Nicene Creeds inform our understanding of the Trinity. The wording of the Lord’s Prayer is a gift from tradition (it never appears quite the way all English speakers memorized it). For that matter, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral itself is a gift of the Wesleyan tradition.
Of course, tradition is not infallible because sin can contaminate it. For example, there was a long season in some Christian traditions of justified human slavery, precisely when other Christian traditions were the primary thrust behind its abolition! So tradition is valuable but never sufficient when taken alone.
Our ability to reason is part of being made in the image of our Creator. We do not believe that our Christian faith comes primarily through reason. Instead, we believe Christian faith is a revelation from God to the human race, confirmed in scripture. At the same time, we don’t discard reason when we read scripture or enter the church.
Sin can also contaminate reason. But when used in concert with the other three parts of the quadrilateral, reason is important and valuable.
We believe the truth of Scripture is revealed, sooner or later, in personal experience in the believer's life. If we trust Christ for our salvation and follow him as Lord, we expect to feel the assurance of our adoption into God’s family. We believe God prompts us occasionally as we follow him, as is taught in James 1.5 and displayed throughout the Bible's pages.
Of course, Experience cannot be the single authority that informs our Christian faith. History is full of people who claimed to experience a direct word from the Lord that was either factually wrong or unwise advice.
Here's a helpful article on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral written by Janet Green and posted on HolinessToday.com.
Here are the notes from two sermons that offer examples of using the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Don't trust me! (Trust the One I Trust) and Job 2: When God Doesn't Show Up.
Several Christian traditions, such as Anglican/Episcopalian, teach a triangle instead of a quadrilateral. They omit Experience. This does not mean that Episcopalians are any less Christian; it just means their tradition is slightly different from ours.