Formation Friday: The Anglican 3-Legged Stool

Formation Friday is a weekly blog from our Minister of Formation Scott Coulter, exploring what it means to be an Episcopalian. From the theological to the practical, this is all about understanding the Episcopal Church, walking with Christ, understanding the Word, and living out our Baptismal Covenant to “seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves”.

The Episcopal Church is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion, a collection of denominations from around the globe, all of whom trace their origins back to the Church of England. We often have a tenuous relationship as our strong support of the LGBTQIA+ community can place us at odds with the more conservative factions, but as of THIS writing, we are still a part. The many churches of the Anglican Communion follow in the geography of the British Colonial era. The Episcopal Church was one of the earliest denominations in the United States, and was essentially the US branch of the Anglican Church, being, as we were, a British Colony until the Revolutionary War (this history of Colonialism is a deeply problematic part of our shared history, but it is much more than we can delve into here. Like all institutions, there is plenty to atone for and plenty to learn).

Now, there have been many splits within Christianity since Jesus of Nazareth walked the streets of Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago. And each one of these splits represents disagreements on just how we are meant to live out the Gospel. In our hyper-partisan climate, it is easy to look for the “good guys” and the “bad guys” in these disagreements, but in truth most of these splits were genuine disagreements among people of good faith. Full of human error, yes, but by and large not driven by malice.

One of those splits is what created the Anglican Church, and while the whole story of that split is fascinating, it’s too much to dive into here. The very short version is that the Anglican Church, formed in the aftermath of the Protestant Revolution, is based on the principle of the Media Via, or “middle way”. It finds itself holding onto a great deal of Catholic tradition and Liturgy that other Protestant denominations rejected, while embracing many Protestant ideas, including the rejection of a Pope, and a renewed focus on the importance of Scripture as a central source of authority. This is the “middle way”, between completely rejecting the Catholic tradition and remaining wholly bound by it.

And now, finally, we come to the “Anglican 3-legged stool”. First introduced by Theologian Richard Hooker in the 1500’s, this 3-legged stool represents the 3 sources of authority in the Anglican (and Episcopal) Church: Scripture, Reason and Tradition. In modern times, we have come to understand this 3-legged stool as 3 inter-dependent forces, with each one supporting the other 2. We understand them to be a dynamic, interacting set of principles. This is how I myself tend to relate to them. However, as elaborated by Richard Hooker, they were understood in a more hierarchical way. Scripture is at the top, followed by reason, followed by tradition. He was writing in an era dominated by hierarchical views of most things, so it should be no surprise that he might hold a more hierarchical view than we do today.

Regardless of whether we consider them to be co-equal or hierarchical, all 3 are important within Anglicanism. Scripture is our source, our lineage, our Holy Word. Most Episcopalians don’t hold an inerrant or infallible view of scripture, but that doesn’t mean we don’t hold it sacred. Rather, we call into our reading of scripture that second leg, reason. Because we don’t hold scripture to be inerrant, we are called to develop our reason in order that we might understand the deeper Truth contained within scripture. And here, reason is understood not as mere “logic” or intellectual cleverness, but as a holistic ability to understand, encompassing logic, intellect and inutition. It is, in a word, our discernment. Reason is our lens through which we view scripture and allow its truths to be revealed.

And what about “tradition”? Well, we learn how to be discerning by practice. We learn about Lectio Divina, the practice of deeply reading Scripture as a conversation with God. We learn about Centering Prayer, a contempoary re-imagining of the ancient monastic practices of contemplative prayer. We embrace our Book of Common Prayer, a book that holds us together in liturgical practice, but allows us each the freedom to experience that liturgy in our own ways. All of this is the tradition the 3rd leg speaks to, and it is what allows us to grow in our spiritual capacities. As Jesus told us, “A student is not above his teacher”. The tradition is what ensures we are receiving good and solid education, rather than following reckless tangents and getting in over our heads.

When all 3 of these principles truly come together, they are a powerful force. Taken together, practiced consistently, they allow us to grow more deeply into the Gospel. They give us the solid foundation to live out our call to follow in the Way of Jesus, in the Way of Love. Amen.