Sources

Why do Christians believe what they believe? 

Broadly speaking, there are 4 ways Christians may believe they hear from God.

Scripture is emphasised by all Christians, perhaps particularly by the evangelical tradition. The canon of scripture as we know it was agreed at the Council of Hippo in 393 AD. Following this, one of the big shifts in the Reformation was the printing press allowing people to read the Bible for themselves, as well as multiple translations of the Bible, both in Greek based on a fresh reading of the oldest preserved fragments (Erasmus’ in 1516) and in everyday language (including Tyndale’s in 1525 and Luther’s in 1522) which encouraged more diversity of interpretations. Before this the only authorised version was the Latin Vulgate translation. From this, people formed their own beliefs about God, though these beliefs will often fit within a tradition.

Tradition is perhaps most emphasised by Catholic and Orthodox Christians, but we all tend to draw on the beliefs of those who came before us. Denominations form when enough Christians have shared beliefs. 

Reason is often associated with the Enlightenment, including John Locke’s idea that reason leads us to an “eternal, most powerful and most knowing Being”. At first glance this seems obvious – surely our beliefs should be logical? And yet belief is often about interpreting the evidence as best we can, and so there is often an element of subjectivity. This feeds into our final category, which has perhaps risen in popularity over the last century.

Experience is perhaps especially important in the Pentecostal/charismatic tradition, which in itself is perhaps one of the latest expressions of mystical Christianity. Earlier famous mystics include St. Julian of Norwich and St. Theresa of Avila. With this comes an awareness that our beliefs are subjective, and never fully free from bias, but can still be valid grounds for belief. If anything, this is the oldest reason anyone believes anything, and is essential to our belief in the incarnation (1 John 1.1-3) – God became part of the human experience so that we could know them better.

These four sources make up the Wesleyan Quadrilateral (a term coined by Methodist theologian Albert Outler). It’s a useful way of describing where our beliefs come from, though clearly they can overlap and we might want to emphasise one over the others.

Further resources

Books
Nick Page, A Nearly Infallible Guide to Christianity
Amos Yong, Discerning the Spirit(s)

Media
The Bible Project
World History Encyclopedia, Christianity timeline