At its most basic description, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral is a way of understanding, formatting, and quantifying the Christian Life. John Wesley created it in the late 18th century to help Christians have a method for measuring their collective growth and life in Christianity.

In this way, John Wesley provided a valuable tool for the parishioner to examine their own life and determine how scripture and Biblical principles fit within it. The Wesleyan Quadrilateral divides the Christian Life into four separate but interlocking parts.

Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience are best understood as a three-legged stool. Scripture, as the foundation, holds together Tradition, Reason, and Experience; therefore, Scripture is like the base, and the other three are the legs.

Understanding Tradition, Reason, and Experience must be done within the context of Scripture, grounding the audience in their faith and ensuring these aspects of the Christian life are not separated and become more significant than Scripture. When placed in the correct context of Scriptural understanding, Tradition, Reason, and Experience provide clarity to those who are lost.

All Christians are on a journey to become the people God has called them to be. While all fall short, the question often becomes, how should a person measure their growth along the journey? How should one explain the setbacks, pains, tribulations, hardships, and joyful, practical, and triumphant aspects of a person’s life? The Christian can understand each element more clearly when the journey is placed within the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.

While a denomination is attached to the Wesleyan Quadrilateral, this book is not connected to that denomination. The confines of the denomination mean that the tool of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral becomes locked behind inherently restrictive dogma.

The goal is to examine the Wesleyan Quadrilateral divorced from such dogma and provide all Christians, regardless of their denominational affiliations, with a greater understanding of their lives, fostering a sense of acceptance and understanding in their diverse experiences. .