Wesley and Beyond

Abstract

Abstract Christian students often struggle with the challenge of integrating the faith of their upbringing and traditions with the critical perspectives and the plurality of viewpoints required in tertiary education. This article argues that a useful framework for integrating this diversity of viewpoints and their faith traditions is provided by combining the notion of a quadrilateral of four sources of knowledge that Christians most value, namely tradition, bible, reason and experience, combined with a theological reflection model, such as Thomas Groome’s praxis cycle, which promotes reflection on the application of these sources to life and mission. This enlarged epistemological framework is shown to be useful for promoting intellectual development and faith maturation, through a process of experiential learning such as described in the writings of David Kolb (1983). It is argued that this framework for learning and reflection is more closely aligned with holistic approaches of the ancient Hebrews and Scripture than the narrower singular secular approaches to knowing and learning taken by many tertiary institutions.