{"id":6583,"date":"2010-07-23T05:53:09","date_gmt":"2010-07-23T05:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/the-wesleyan-quadrilateral-ste-1.html"},"modified":"2010-07-23T05:53:09","modified_gmt":"2010-07-23T05:53:09","slug":"the-wesleyan-quadrilateral-ste-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/the-wesleyan-quadrilateral-ste-1.html","title":{"rendered":"The Wesleyan Quadrilateral Step by Step (by T) 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WesQuad.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We’re discussing how we build what we know about God, our theology, and using Wesley’s Quadrilateral as an outline for our discussion.  <\/span>The first of the four I want to discuss is Tradition.  <\/span>I think I want to start with that one because it’s probably the one that, for me, growing up largely in a low-church environment, is the most “undiscovered country” of the four.  <\/span>Even this series is evidence of the growing value that Tradition has for me as I follow Christ day by day.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our questions on Tradition are these:<\/b>  <\/b><\/span>Who makes up your community? Who are “your people?”<\/b>  <\/b><\/span>Think along both descriptive and prescriptive lines; what groups, cultures, traditions (in and out of church) actually shape your theology, and who should, or who do you want to shape it?<\/b>  <\/b><\/span>Do you focus on voices of a certain denomination, hemisphere, culture or time period?<\/b>  <\/b><\/span>In what ways to you want to broaden or narrow the Traditions or communities you call home?<\/b>  <\/b><\/span>What are some ways that a community or Tradition opened your eyes to an aspect of God you treasure today?<\/b>  <\/b><\/span>What are some ways a tradition or community has blinded you to truths you now hold dear?<\/b>   <\/b><\/span>Did you ever have to step outside of your tradition into the larger Tradition to find language or counsel for something you were experiencing or learning?<\/b><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

I should note that I posted on Tradition here not too long ago<\/a>, and I’d also like to mention that the United Methodist Church has some great material on their site<\/a> on each part of the Quadrilateral as they still use it today.  <\/span>In fact the opening paragraph there introduces the concept of Tradition well:<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

“Between
\nthe New Testament age and our own era stand countless witnesses on whom we rely
\nin our theological journey. Through their words in creed, hymn, discourse, and
\nprayer, through their music and art, through their courageous deeds, we
\ndiscover Christian insight by which our study of the Bible is illuminated. This
\nliving tradition comes from many ages and many cultures. Even today Christians
\nliving in far different circumstances from our own–in Africa, in Latin America,
\nin Asia–are helping us discover fresh understanding of the Gospel’s power.”<\/span><\/p>\n

That
\nintro brings me to what I think is something of a misnomer here.  <\/span>It is not, to me, so much a matter of
\n‘Tradition’ as it is community with all
\nthe saints<\/i>.  <\/span>If we Christians
\ntoday believe that God is alive and well and active in us, then we are hard
\npressed to think less of the many who have come before us, who, I believe, now
\nanticipate full, face to face fellowship with us along with Christ.  <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The
\nquestion of who will we become and what we will believe is, in my opinion, significantly
\ndetermined in actual fact by the prior question of who will we make “our
\npeople.”  <\/span>I’m not talking here
\nabout to whom we will show love or hospitality.  <\/span>That should be universal.  <\/span>I’m talking about which people group grounds us and our
\nsense of reality.  <\/span>Whose norms to
\nwant to make our own?  <\/span>Whose wisdom
\nto we open our ears to hear?  <\/span>To
\nwhom to we go for counsel in the Way? 
\n<\/span>For my part, I want John Wesley to be a norm-setter for me, along with
\nAndrew Murray, St. John of the Cross, the apostle Paul, Mother Teresa,
\nKierkegaard, Martin Luther (and the King, Jr.), along with hosts of Quakers,
\nCatholics, Southern Baptists, Vineyard folks, Anabaptists, Anglicans and even
\nanonymous recovering alcoholics and others besides.  <\/span>To those whose lives demonstrate an obvious wisdom and fear
\nof the Lord and the nature of his Spirit, I often affirm, “This is my
\ncommunity.”  <\/span>But I admit, as
\nwell, that many of my own compromises and failures have come from being
\nunwilling to be ostracized from or give up status within other communities and
\ntraditions of thinking and acting.  <\/span>Community and Tradition, like Reason and Experience, are
\ndoors that swing both ways, for good ideas and bad ones.<\/span><\/p>\n

And of
\ncourse, thankfully, not all the saints are present with Christ.  <\/span>Many are right here in this world,
\nfighting the good fight, or not, right next door, often available to encourage,
\nadvise and even hear my confessions and theology in the making.  <\/span>Our local church traditions and
\nconnections are hugely important to our own theological conclusions.  <\/span>And it’s not just church, but family,
\nfriends, and work relationships and patterns that form the Tradition that
\ninfluences us.  <\/span>Venues such as this
\nblog demonstrate how much we all long to wrestle with our faith not only one
\nour own but with others, particularly those who are also seeing and responding
\nto Christ, sometimes piece by piece. 
\n<\/span>But our local traditions and churches are anything but intellectual
\ninteractions alone.  <\/span>Love, in deed
\nnot merely words, for one another is the central command and example of our
\nFather and our Lord.  <\/span>It is the
\nmark of being Christ’s disciple, and the fruit of his Spirit within us.  <\/span>Even the model prayer Christ gives us
\nis to be done together, as we pray “Our Father . . .”  <\/span>How we see the faith implemented and
\nembodied, how we receive the grace of God communally and individually and
\nbelieve it to be most powerfully communicated and embodied, these are all part
\nof the Tradition that builds our ideas about God.<\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re discussing how we build what we know about God, our theology, and using Wesley’s Quadrilateral as an outline for our discussion.  The first of the four I want to discuss is Tradition.  I think I want to start with that one because it’s probably the one that, for me, growing up largely in a low-church environment,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gospel"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Wesleyan Quadrilateral Step by Step (by T) 2 - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/the-wesleyan-quadrilateral-ste-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Wesleyan Quadrilateral Step by Step (by T) 2 - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We’re discussing how we build what we know about God, our theology, and using Wesley’s Quadrilateral as an outline for our discussion.  The first of the four I want to discuss is Tradition.  I think I want to start with that one because it’s probably the one that, for me, growing up largely in a low-church environment,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2010\/07\/the-wesleyan-quadrilateral-ste-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-07-23T05:53:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/06\/WesQuad-thumb-333x324-15599.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Wesleyan Quadrilateral Step by Step (by T) 2 - 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