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Alan Creech
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aaron klinefelter
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February 27, 2006
> 10:16 PM
discernment and tradition > 1 I've said it before. I'll say it again. I do not believe that Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone) is how we should define our faith. I do not believe that everything we need to know about what it means to be a Christian is contained, verbatim, in the Bible. The Bible itself grew out of Tradition passed on inside the Church. It is a result of what was commonly held as True and taught and read from as the Word of God among the early churches. I'm not beginning this way in order to argue the point. I'm simply stating where my foundations are so that I can go farther and talk about other things. Among those of us who are not in the Sola Scriptura crowd, there is obviously something else. What? Well, mostly there is what is referred to as Sacred Tradition, or otherwise, the Tradition of the Church. These are Truths that have been passed down from generation to generation, from the teaching of the earliest Christians, the Apostles and their disciples, through and in the churches, verbally and through Church culture. It is Tradition that actually tells us that there is a Bible. Tradition says that it is the Word of God. Tradition gives us words like Trinity. It is sometimes more defined than Scripture. And to be very clear, this Sacred Tradition never contradicts the Word of God in Scripture - that Tradition which is genuine and is passed down by the work of the Holy Spirit through the Church, in the churches. For those who are used to hearing things in such a way, I am not referring to what is called "the traditions of men," which are often condemned as something to be avoided. There are obviously places in Scripture and even your common sense will tell you, when we are called to see that something is merely "the traditions of men" which stand opposed to God's Word or anything the Apostles and genuinely Spirit-filled early Christian Teachers have handed on in the Church. This would really be the subject of my little essay here. I want to talk about discernment in the area of Tradition. I'll play the capitalization game again: "T"radition (genuine Truth passed down by the help of the Holy Spirit in and through the Church from generation to generation) and "t"radition(s) (other beliefs and practices which have attached themselves to the Church, in certain churches, etc., which may not inherently be bad or evil or even harmful, but which are not things always passed down as Truth to accompany Holy Scripture in forming us in this life). There are surely some of these traditions that have taken hold inside the Church or maybe even in some of the churches (smaller bodies within the larger Mystical Body of Christ - the Whole Church), which are not that bad. Some examples of these might be seen in some of our modes of worship: robes, how church buildings are decorated, whether we even have church buildings (how 'bout that one), certain prayers we may pray in the assembly or songs we may sing. These are examples of things that may change over time and as cultures shift. Should pastors wear suits or habits or shorts and polo shirts? I'm not sure any of these things can be put in the arena of Sacred Tradition. Should Priests be married or single and celibate? Again, it has been commonly accepted both ways in the life of the Church, and in the lives of the churches we have, now, both of these in evidence. Can we discern that this issue is not a matter of Tradition, but of tradition? I think we'd better be careful if we say we can't. Those are some among many examples. That should get us started. I'll move more into the area of how we need to develop a better discernment in the area of Tradition vs. tradition. Some of our respective parts of Christianity, have this pretty well defined. Some others haven't thought about it much. I'll have more to say about that later. I wanted to go ahead and put this part up, though, since I have it done. Peace to you. technorati tags > sacred tradition, christian tradition, sola scriptura, theology, traditions of men, emerging church, church, discernment Labels: church, emerging church, theology 0 Comments:| permalink | e-mail me | 
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