Recently a friend fell into a conversation about church with a local Baptist minister. When she said she attended the Episcopal Church, he smiled and said, “Oh, you go to the “thinking church.” How did the Episcopal Church get the reputation as “the thinking church?” Even though most Episcopalians don’t know his name, they owe a great debt of thanks to the Rev. Richard Hooker (1554-1600), a priest in the Church of England. In his book “Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polity,” he laid out what became the standard Anglican understanding of how we think about who we are as a Christian people in the world today.
At the time that Hooker wrote, the Church of England had separated itself from the pope and the Church of Rome. Their link to the traditional, hierarchical, top down method of doing theology had been cut. While the Church of England still knew the tradition, now that they didn’t have to listen to the pope, there was much argument over who got to interpret the tradition and decide what it meant. At the same time, the Reformers on the continent, not only Luther and Calvin but also many others, cried out for “sola scriptura” that is, “The Bible only,” as the source of Christian understanding. And both England and the continent were in the early days of the Enlightenment, the renewal of respect for human reason, for humanity’s capacity to explore, and think about, and understand, the world around them.
Tradition, Scripture, and Reason: each raised its voice to say, “Me, me, choose me!” Supporters of each of these ways of “doing theology” pushed for their way to become THE way in the Church of England. And Richard Hooker brilliantly created the combination that has come to be known as “the three-legged stool;” a very homey image for such an important idea. The thing about a three-legged stool is that it will not wobble – it may not be even or level, but it will not wobble. Even if one of the legs is a little shorter or longer than the other two, or if they are all of differing lengths – set it down and sit on it and it will not wobble. So it is with Anglican (Episcopal) thinking. The trio of Scripture, Tradition and Reason are not always given equal weight in answering all questions, but each one is always considered:
Scripture: What does the Bible say about it?
Tradition: What have Christians thought about this for the last 2000 years?
Reason: What makes sense to us now?
The really brilliant thing about the three-legged stool is its versatility. Individual Christians can use it in thinking about their personal faith and life; a congregation can use it to think together about where God is leading them; large groups like the diocese or the national church use it in deliberating on matters of deep import.
So, the next time you find yourself feeling grateful for a place like Good Shepherd Episcopal Church where you can not only think freely about your life of faith, but also speak freely about what you think – pray a prayer of thanksgiving for Father Richard Hooker and his three-legged stool.
Peace, Delme