The Stool Test
But "right reason" says that if Jesus were God, then his "miracles" are not in the least unreasonable, but appropriate actions of a divinity who had created fishes and wheat in the first place! Right reason often operates within the framework of the syllogism in which two propositions are presented and a conclusion is drawn from them: if A is true and B is true, then C will be true also (e.g.: If God can do miracles and Jesus is God, then Jesus can do miracles).
"Right reason" always began, of course, with a premise of faith and followed the logical mind from that point. The premise of "scientific logic", however, is that everything demands objective, material, and replicable evidence or it is not true - including the premises themselves.
Another way to say this is that there is nothing in Christian teaching which is contrary to logical right reason - there are some things which are beyond the conclusions of logical reason, but not contrary to them - there are some things which reason may point to, but which reason alone cannot explain.
"Reason", then, is not the equivalent of contemporary scientific method, but a process of thought based on premises which may not themselves always be proven by reason itself.
II
The second issue we want to take with the modern version of the three-legged stool theory is its incompleteness! It is a fine, literary analogy, a fine intellectual allusion to help find balance in theological controversy. However, it is in one sense an Old Testament procedure - or at least a pre-Incarnational notion. Jesus said very plainly, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." - "I", not the Bible, nor Tradition, nor Reason. Truth, vitality, or methodology for the Church is not a "system", but a Person.
We are reminded of Margaret Mary Alacoque's words: "All the way to heaven is heaven, because He said, 'I am the Way'". Our spiritual journey, then, is not a journey TO Christ (all those pious books notwithstanding), but a journey ON or IN Christ. He is the Way.
And the goal of that "journey" is not the discovery of some new insight or understanding about God, but the goal is Truth- and Christ Himself is the Truth.
And our means of making the "journey" and gaining the "goal" is not our own vitality
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