Tradition

‘Tradition’ derives from the Latin tradere to deliver or hand over, itself a compound of trans (across or over) and dare (to give). A tradition, then, is what is handed down, or given over from one generation to the next. This process may be explicit or implicit. Teaching children and young people ideas and ways of acting which were themselves handed down is an intentional way of preserving tradition, but it is also communicated by example. It is impossible to understand or even participate in many areas of human life without having some grasp of the traditions that shaped and continue to govern them: art, architecture, philosophy, religion, and science, as well as cuisine, custom, dress, and language itself are all formed and sustained by and as traditions. Even radical developments in these fields are only intelligible as such because of their relations to the existing traditions. Thus, Andy Warhol’s silk-screen prints of Campbell’s soup cans, and of Marylin Monroe only make sense against the background of traditions of still-life and portrait painting. Tradition has a special meaning in relation to Christian belief and practice, and in one important respect serves to distinguish broadly Catholic (and Eastern orthodox) Christianity from Reformation and more recent churches. According to Catholic/Orthodox beliefs God’s revelation to humanity ended with the death of the last apostle. Much of it is given in New Testament Scripture but some of it was received and handed on by the apostles through their teaching and practice though it is not explicitly recorded in the Gospels, Epistles, Acts or Book of Revelation. For Catholic/Orthodox this is part of the content of Christian dogma as defined in Church Councils and is taught authoritatively by Apostolic Churches i.e. ones founded by Apostles. The Protestant Reformers, by contrast, insisted on the principle ‘sola scriptura’, that scripture is the sole and sufficient word of God. There are two main consequences of this. First, a distinction between Churches (i.e. Apostolic foundations) and ecclesial communities. For Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy only they and those in communion with them are Churches strictly speaking. Second, Catholic/Orthodox hold as part of Apostolic tradition ideas such as the Assumption of Mary (the ‘dormition’ in the East) and both hold to the Primacy of Rome among Churches it alone having been founded by two ‘apostles’, Peter and Paul. ‘Traditionalism’ refers to an attachment to older liturgical and devotional practices and formulations of Christian teaching. Tradition in the broader sense emphasis its vitality and forward movement, looking back in order to move ahead.