Simon

Methodists always talk about the Wesleyan quadrilateral. They know where the Bible fits into their processes of discernment. 

Roy

It’s a long, long time since I heard that phrase! My Bible College principal was always banging on about it because he was a Wesleyan Methodist.

Simon

They have four aspects which they try to hold in tension, and scripture is one of them. The others are tradition, reason and experience. So there’s an acknowledgement that God can speak through any of those and the challenge is to include all of them in a conversation together. I think Wesley would have given pre-eminence to scripture, but it’s not like it is this one-way revelation from a mountaintop and all truth flows that way. You can start with experience. You can start with reason. You can start with tradition, and the discernment process begins. It’s a multifaceted conversation. 

Dave

I think the idea of conversation is a really good way of looking at discernment, because often it is about a number of different factors all coming together and contributing towards the conclusions that you reach, or maybe the conclusions you fail to reach! 

Simon

Yeah, absolutely. We all bring stuff to the Bible.

Julie

I see a link with the Baptist Declaration of principle here. Let me read it to you.

“Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, is the sole and absolute authority in all matters pertaining to faith and practice, as revealed in the Holy Scriptures. And each church has liberty under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to interpret and administer his laws.”

So again, for me it’s about Jesus. He is the absolute authority, “as revealed in the Scriptures”- so the Bible’s function is to reveal Jesus to us. But then, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, each church can decide, each within its own context which is affected by particular traditions, experience and reason.

The church therefore interprets what Jesus is saying, so for me there’s a bit of a link there. Does anyone else see that?

Craig

Yeah, there is. During the many discussions we had in Baptist Union Council on human sexuality and marriage, one of the key sessions began with unpacking that declaration. And what I realised is how much I baulked at the idea of Jesus giving us laws because it’s the last thing he was actually doing! I’d never noticed it before, so that indicates how much I’ve shifted in my understanding of things. Jesus didn’t interpret scripture as if it was law, but he saw it as revelation. Drawing us into relationship.

Dave

Yeah, let’s put it like this. If our discerning doesn’t look like Jesus, then maybe we’re on the wrong track.

Julie

Yes, I agree with everything we’ve said.

But let’s consider one more issue close to my heart where Scripture contradicts itself: women in ministry. As you will know, there are verses where some people say the Bible teaches that you can’t be a minister if you’re a woman. And then there are examples of women leading in the church!

And that’s where the Wesleyan quadrilateral becomes useful. We use our reasoning, our experience and our tradition to discern what conclusion is most Christ-like. So when a woman is called to ministry, their Baptist church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, can affirm that call just as they would a man, and recognise that Paul’s comments about women were contextual.

Craig

That’s right, and we can’t expect Scripture to address the issue of women in ministry because women in those days were treated in a certain way and we have moved on. And the way we understand ministry was completely different today to the way it was then. So how can we expect Scripture to address that particular question? I can’t imagine how most of the presuppositions we have about women and ministry could have even been understood, let alone accepted, in Jesus’ day.