The Pragmatic Four
The Theological Task of Wesleyan Christians
Baber ident 300
In the pursuit for holiness of heart and life, Christians work to discern best practices to faithfully love God and neighbor. We search the Scripture, “our primary source for theological inquiry” (umc.org). John Wesley declares the Bible contains “all things necessary to salvation” (BOD ¶104.3), but can you just flip it open, point to a sentence and be blessed with enlightenment for the day? But what do you do if you find yourself lost in, oh, I don’t know 90% of the Bible concerned with ancient genealogy, history, and strange laws? If a verse doesn’t have immediate devotional quality, is it okay to just ignore it and move on? Does every word of Scripture carry the same weight as the next?
Well it sounds like you need The Pragmatic Four: The Greatest Heroes in the World!!! With our team of fantastic heroes, we can take the extremely boring Wesleyan Quadrilateral for discernment and bring it 4 times the action! 4 times the adventure! 4 times the theological inquiry! Our team reminds us that spiritual discernment is multi-faceted, and takes reflection on Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason working together.
Phoebe Palmer IS Inscripture Girl!
The Bible is our canon, our measuring stick, the written story of God and the covenant people of Israel, the good news of Jesus Christ, and the dawn of the early church. We hide it in our hearts, we chew on it and turn it over like a fine diamond. It is a rich, complex library of ancient and diverse voices. We do not worship the book, we let the book point us to the God who inspired its coming together. When scripture doesn’t make sense, or seems contrary to what we know of God, we must read it against other scripture. The larger movement and story arc of the Bible helps inform the details.
Charles Wesley IS The Doctrine!
Fun Fact, christians did not first emerge out of your personal, local church…they’ve actually existed across cultures and time for like thousands of years! While Christian Tradition can feel like an immovable rock that’s rolling right over you, it is vital that we pay attention to the ways the church before us has interpreted the work of God in the world. While the church today may come to different conclusions from the church of the past, we must still give serious consideration the the work of the Holy Spirit in the faith of our ancestors.
George Whitefield IS Great Balls of Fire!
Experience is a key belief of many Christians, that we can know God and have relationship with Jesus Christ. We bear witness and testimony to our experience of the Holy Spirit at work in the world. We turn to scripture to help find meaning in our experience, and we also allow our experience of God today inform our understanding of the scripture we read. The Holy Spirit revealed in the tongues of flame at Pentecost demonstrates the unpredictable mystery of God’s work in ordinary people like you and me.
John Wesley IS Mr. Pragmatic!
With his amazing powers of stretchy logic, Mr. Pragmatic reveals that we must use our brains to draw conclusions from what we learn! Ask! Seek! Knock! Interpretation requires REASON! Discernment happens in community: your own community with the Triune God, and the community of your family of faith discerning together with you. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral is simply a reminder of the tools that work together to help Christians reflect deeply and meaningfully to engage in what God’s already up to in the world.
PS. This week’s comic is inspired by my real life inability to correctly pronounce “jean jacket.” Personally, I believe the rest of the world is wrong, but who am I?