We started talking last week about theological reflection and the four elements of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Scripture, Reason, Tradition, and Experience. We noted the predominance of Scripture in theological reflection, and we also discussed the limitations of depending on Scripture alone. Then we turned our attention to Reason, noting its popularity with Modernists, but also seeing its weaknesses.

Now I want to talk about Tradition. In Churches of Christ, we’ve had a love/hate relationship with Tradition. Going back to early Restorationists like Barton Stone and the Campbells, we find a real distrust of Tradition. The idea soon emerged in the Restoration Movement that most church history, from the 2nd century on, was a history of apostasy and digression; the goal was to restore the pure, simple faith of the first century. (which tends to idealize the first century church… but that’s another post)

Later generations would deal similarly with Stone and Alexander Campbell. The Movement would seek to uphold their ideals while rejecting many of their ideas and practices. Many today deny any dependence on Stone and Campbell, claiming a heritage that goes straight back to 33 A.D. Yet even these deniers of history protest loudly any divergence from the teachings and practices of Churches of Christ in the 1960s. That’s why I say it’s a love/hate relationship. In theory we reject Tradition; in practice, we tend to be very Tradition-bound.

So what role does Tradition play in theological reflection? I think it should play an important one, though I see it more as a safeguard than a definer of doctrine. What I mean is that we should seek theological answers from the pages of Scripture themselves, but the answers that we find should be compared with those that the Church has found throughout history. I don’t want to be innovative. I’m not seeking the new. I don’t consider my intellect to be superior to all those who came before me. I will disagree with many, but I hope to agree with many as well.

So, in my personal practice, I don’t place Tradition on the same plane with Reason and certainly not on the same plane with Scripture. However, it is a voice that needs to be heard more than it often is in our fellowship.

“Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And, I suppose I should add, it is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name.”
― Jaroslav Pelikan, The Vindication of Tradition: The 1983 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities