Holding Experience, Scripture, and Tradition in Tension

Our spirituality is shaped through our experience first. Scripture and Tradition matter, but they do not bypass our lived reality. Our early relationships, cultural norms, and personal history shape how we interpret teachings and texts. It is a mistake to pretend otherwise. We benefit from naming this openly. Experience is not infallible, but it is real. Scripture and Tradition serve best when they help us evaluate experience with clarity and humility. If Tradition and Scripture are used to silence our own ongoing experience—our learnings, discoveries, thinkings and rethinkings, and quests—then … Tradition and Scripture become not the foundation on which we build, but the ceiling above which we cannot grow. None of these sources stands alone. Together, they ground and challenge each other. This keeps us honest, less likely to idolize any single source of authority. Our task is to engage this process with integrity, not to escape it. This is how we grow—personally, spiritually, communally.

May we never confuse the ceiling for the foundation,
but grow with courage through
experience, Scripture, and Tradition held in honest tension.

(inspired by Richard Rohr, Yes, And; Brian McLaren, Commentary on the Tricycle Metaphor)