Tradition
Tradition has great authority in the lives of most people. We look to the accumulated wisdom of the past in forms such as laws and constitutions, scientific discoveries, masterpieces of art and literature, and folklore for guidance in organizing society and understanding the world and our place in it.
In a similar way, Christians have always looked to their past for guidance in matters of belief and practice. For them, tradition is the “handing on” (Latin traditio') and continuing interpretation of the gospel message through the centuries. The idea of tradition is found in the Bible. In one of his letters to the Christians of Corinth, Paul wrote: “I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received” (1 Corinthians 15:3). Although different groups define the content of tradition in different ways, in the broadest sense it includes creeds, forms of worship, doctrines, the decisions of church councils, the works of major theologians, and even the illustration of the gospel in art, music, and literature.All Christians place great value on tradition. For Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians, its authority is on the same level as scripture. Some point out that because the earliest Christians were “handing on” the faith even before the first New Testament texts were written, scripture can be seen as apart of tradition. Protestants set tradition below scripture but still acknowledge its importance. Most Protestants believe that tradition is helpful in understanding scripture and recognize the importance of ancient creeds, patterns of worship, and other traditional features of belief and practice.
More on the topic Tradition:
- In Vanishing into Things: Knowledge in Chinese Tradition I posed the question of empiricism in traditional Chinese thought.
- The Trend of Change and the Kuki Traditional Religion
- Background Context
- Introduction
- KARAITES
- The Constant Measure of Value and a Nave Reasoning of Technology
- The Cognitive (R)evolution: The End?
- Hare C., Neo D. (eds.). Trade Finance: Technology, Innovation and Documentary Credit. Oxford University Press,2021. — 417 p., 2021