Reason

Richard Hooker’s descriptions of the doctrinal stance of the Episcopal Church included his three-legged stool of Bible, church tradition, and reason. The Bible, of course, is basic to all Christian denominations—self-evident. Church tradition, rich with hard-wrought conclusions, extends throughout two millennia. As for the third, “reason,” I had considered it synonymous with “logical thinking” until I recently heard that he defined it as “thought, feelings, and experience.” That considerably expands the concept.
“Thought” is obvious. Although “experience” is personal and cumulative, it may overlap with church tradition. But “feelings”—that’s another matter. That brings in emotion, and opens a new can of worms. How can fear, jealousy, anger, attraction, joy, confusion, guilt, desperation—all those feelings we men have traditionally had to work to identify—be part of the reasoning process?
Years ago I was told by a psychiatrist that men were driven by, and acted on, their emotions to the same degree as women, and I flat-out didn’t believe him. Now, after much therapy and anguished soul-searching, I do. [An example: although we think our conclusions are solely based on logic, in reality they’re the result of what we LIKE, and therefore conclude that they’re right]. Maybe Hooker was on to something!