Talk:Wesleyan Quadrilateral

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Despite Wesley's contention, this methodology violates sola scriptura

I'd contend that the statement that this doesn't coincide with Sola Scriptura is somewhat false. I'm not personally Wesleyan. But Wesley clearly states in various writings that Scripture is the ultimate truth and that, as such, anything that disagrees with that is false. As the quote clearly states, if tradition does not agree with scripture, it should be tossed. Likewise, the same with reason and experience (though the article does not specify these)...if they did not line up with scripture, they were considered incorrect. Therefore, I'd stipulate that Wesley did agree with Sola Scriptura in that all things were weighed against scripture, and if they were found lacking, they were...or at least should have been, according to Wesley...done away with. Thus, Sola Scriptura stands. Just my two cents. Cpark 20:46, 30 Jan 2005 (EST)

I would agree that the Quadrilateral is not necessarily opposed to "sola scriptura"; certainly it wasn't as utilized by Wesley or Outler. Wesley viewed Scripture as pre-eminent in the Quad, and tossed out bits of theology which he felt were supported by Tradition or Reason or XP but in disagreement with the Bible (see The Bible in the Wesleyan Heritage by Mack Stokes - ISBN 0687031001, pp. 19-26). The truth is that while Wesley supported the idea of "sola scriptura", he recognized that we bring to the table many things which affect our interpretation, and the Quad is just a Wesley way of being honest with oneself and trying to place things in their proper order and framework. Yes, the Quad has been misunderstood and abused by many (particularly in the liberal wing of the UMC) who would like to use all four sources as equals, but that approach is foreign to Wesley and to Wesleyan evangelicals. Outler himself was grieved by the abuse and misunderstanding. So, perhaps the section on "sola scriptura" needs to be qualified & touched up a bit. KHM03 18:44, 4 Mar 2005 (EST)

I removed the above statement until support can be provided for it. Otherwise it stands alone as an opinion and has no place on this article until more is written on it. JordanBarrett 22:48, 31 Oct 2005 (EST)