I don’t know when I was first introduced to Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needs, but it had enough impact that I still remember it.  Basically, Mazlow noticed that people focus on certain things in life before they focus on others.  Certain needs were foundational (food, water, etc.) and one would need to have those needs met before he/she could focus on other needs, such as security or love.

While John Wesley never stated it this way, there is a unique approach that Wesley used to develop his theology.  Theologians call it the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, a term coined by Wesleyan scholar Albert Outler.  To put it simply, John Wesley used four approaches in determining his theology – scripture, tradition, reason, and experience.  Theologians have given a number of descriptions of how these all work together, none of which have really helped me understand how it all works.  Finally I studied it myself and have come to an understanding of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral that I think works.  I call it Wesley’s Hierarchy of Truth.

The base level of the Heirarchy of Truth is Scripture.  Scripture is what ultimately leads our understanding of God and how God works in the world and in our lives.  Scripture is the basis on which our beliefs must be built and no belief can be formed apart from scripture.

After scripture, the tradition of the church must be considered.  In fact our scriptures cannot be considered themselves without tradition.  It is tradition that provides us the translations that we read as scripture.  The traditional beliefs of the church have been formed and reformed by theologians throughout history.  We can derive much of what we know of God and how God is at work through studying how God has worked in the history and traditions of the church.

Third in the heirarchy is reason.  Scripture is certainly the foundation of belief and it is difficult (if not impossible!) to interpret scripture apart from tradition.  But beyond these, we must use the gift of reason that God has given us to interpret the scriptures and the tradition of the church.  We cannot take for face value what we may read or hear taught by the church.  We must use reason to interpret scripture in context and make certain that we do not allow traditions to keep us from the truth.  Reason allows us to reconcile our beliefs in a logical way with what we know of God taught to us through scripture and tradition.

Lastly, at the top we have experience.  Experience allows us the have a personal, emotional connection with theology.  Experience answers the question, “Is this what I have discovered to be true in my life?”  Experience makes theology real to us by allowing us to see God at work not only in the pages of scripture and in the annals of history, but active and living today in our lives.

If we maintain scripture as our base and use tradition, reason, and experience as lenses to guide us in our search for truth, we will certainly discover the deep, abiding truth of Christ.  This is what led John Wesley and this is at the heart of the Methodist approach to theology.