1An earlier form of this essay was published in Theology Matters, the blog of the Episcopal Diocese of Dallas.The image of a three-legged stool enjoys a wide variety of applications today, including the mission of the church, retirement planning, various business strategies, and even ‘classical’ Reaganism! The image is especially useful for those who wish to present certain ideas or principles as essential to the integrity of the whole. Many voices in our tradition have adopted the three-legged stool as a convenient way to explain the distinct nature of Anglicanism, especially as compared to other Christian traditions. It is commonly said that Anglicanism looks to three interdependent sources of authority – Scripture, reason, and tradition – and that these three sources ‘uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way.’ This view of Anglicanism was popularized by Urban T. Holmes’s What Is Anglicanism?
The classic expression of the Anglican understanding of authority comes from Richard Hooker, Master of the Temple in London and a favorite cleric of Queen Elizabeth I, whose Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity has been perhaps the distinct and authoritative voice of classical Anglicanism. In Book V he writes on the nature of authority in the Church, where we find what is probably his most famous passage:
Be it in matter of the one kind or of the other [doctrine or church practice], what Scripture doth plainly deliver, to that the first place both of credit and obedience is due; the next whereunto is whatsoever any man can necessarily conclude by force of reason; after these the voice of the Church succeedeth. That which the Church by her ecclesiastical authority shall probably think and define to be true or good, must in congruity of reason overrule all other inferior judgments whatsoever. (V.8.2)
When I read this, I don’t see a ‘three-legged stool’. Rather, I see a careful and helpful explanation of how one best interacts with Scripture to discern the mind and will of God. Hooker’s concern here is discerning the divinely intended order of the church, yet the method he advances is more broadly applicable; that is, it provides a general rule for interpreting and applying the authority of God’s Word for all of faith and life. Hooker’s method isn’t new; it is simply his articulation of how orthodox Christians have always interpreted Scripture since the time of the Apostles. It reflects the practice of St. Peter, St. Paul, Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, and countless other divines. Ironically, far from being a distinctive of Anglicanism, Hooker would say this approach simply belongs to catholic and reformed Christianity.
For Hooker, the ‘plain’ words of Scripture, that is, those parts that are more or less straightforward and clear, have first claim on our trust and obedience. Reason comes in not as one authority among others, but as the comprehending and ordering capacity of the human mind, trying to discern unchangeable doctrine, or teaching, and how to apply it in a particular time, place, and situation. The judgments of human reason only have authority inasmuch as they conform to the Scriptures. And the historic reading and teachings of the church help reason along in its work, even correcting it when necessary. Tradition doesn’t shut down reason; it assists our God-given faculty to discern the truth of the text for itself.
Various images come to my mind in trying to illustrate this relationship between the Scriptures, reason, and tradition. One image is that of an apprentice learning a trade under the supervision of a master craftsman. My first ministry as a priest was as an assistant at St. John’s, Savannah. It was a joy to get to know some of the skilled tradesmen that came to work on our historic building, including a master plasterer and his apprentice. There was no getting around the rules of the trade. The plaster was what it was – there were certain ways of applying it that worked and others that didn’t. For the apprentice, applying the plaster in a particular repair required both knowledge of the medium and the skilled guidance of his master. For Hooker, we all are apprentices in the Scriptures and the Christian life, and to apply our knowledge of the Scriptures rightly, we need the accumulated wisdom and experienced guidance of those who have mastered the craft before us.
Need we be exactly like our forebears in the Christian faith? Hooker’s answer is a qualified ‘no’. Yet there’s no getting around the truth of the ‘plaster’, the plain teaching of the revelation of God in Scripture. And there’s no getting around the fact that some methods of applying that ‘plaster’ work much better than others. Some methods are just plain wrong. The ‘reasonable’ reader of Scripture isn’t aiming at an aggressive deconstruction and critique of the text but rather the one who is truly ‘reasonable’ will enjoy the guidance of the church as an aid and check to his limited ability. The former produces sloppy, unsuitable results. The latter results in a life and faith that blends in and harmonizes with the overall beauty of Christ’s body, joining the original and true meaning with the discernment of saints over centuries to the needs of the present moment.
Again, reason does not have the status of an independent authority on or over the text. The recent appeal of the so-called ‘three-legged stool’ surely finds it roots in the Early Modern prioritization of the individual intellect over and against received texts and traditions, combined with Romanticism’s faith in the authority of passions and feelings. In this expressivist milieu, the goal is not truth but individual ‘authenticity’. When the individual’s reason or passions are viewed as an authority, they quickly become the only authority, and the three-legged stool quickly finds its other two legs lopped off. This leaves only an unassailable column of hubris and license. The other two legs – Scripture and tradition – are kept nearby as weapons with which to fight for the individual’s new, ‘creative’ teaching in service of slavery to the rebellious, idolatrous human heart. The post-modern heart, ever seeking and demanding the right to self-expression and self-creation, persists in defiance of its creator’s will and design.
J.I. Packer aptly speaks to this spirit:
Faith and reason come into conflict when reason denies God’s authority, refuses to be a servant of faith, and reverts to some sort of unbelief; and the ‘freedom’ which reason thus gains is actually perfect slavery.2Fundamentalism and the Word of God: Some Evangelical Principles (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 170.
One is reminded of the words of Psalm 50: 16–17, ‘But unto the ungodly saith God, * Why dost thou preach my laws, and takest my covenant in thy mouth; / Whereas thou hatest to be reformed, * and hast cast my words behind thee?”
Rather, the Spirit-filled reader of Scripture has the words of Ps 27:9 enflaming his heart: ‘My heart hath talked of thee, Seek ye my face: * Thy face, LORD, will I seek,’ and earnestly begs of the Lord, ‘Open thou mine eyes; * that I may see the wondrous things of thy law. / I am a stranger upon earth; * O hide not thy commandments from me’ (Ps 119:18, 19).
A heart and mind of this quality evinces that the Word of God has already been working within the believer (1 Thess 2:13) by the Spirit of God and that he has begun to be transformed by the renewal of his mind (Rom 12:2). When we approach the revelation of God contained in the Word as men and women of faith, we have the Lord’s own promise: ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened’ (Mt 7:7-8); ‘But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed’ (James 1:6).
The glorious Word of God opens itself only to the humble, to those who are reconciled to God through faith in the Cross, who gladly bend the knee to their King, and whose delight is in the Lord. All others will find simply their own folly, and added to it ‘a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries’ (Heb 10:27).
The Rev. Jeremy Bergstrom, PhD is Rector of St. Peter’s in Lake Mary, Florida and gratefully married to Jackie. He also has the delight of raising three boys, who are growing up far too quickly.