Carpe Veritatem: Traditions of men? No, Tradition is a manifestation of The Man Himself, Jesus Christ!

Sorry for the absence, dear readers! That operation I mentioned has come and gone, and it's pret-ty painful moving about.

Today I'm gonna hit y'all with what tradition is, exactly, and why it's important. It goes a bit deeper than the usual "oh Tradition is the oral stuff and Scripture is the written stuff". No, there is some deep theology behind it, my friends! Be in the dark no longer! Enjoy. :)

What is tradition (as part of revelation) and why is it important?

Revelation consists of God revealing certain truths about Himself to humanity, which pertain to man’s ultimate fulfilment. Revelation is thus necessary for humanity to fulfil their nature, the purpose for which they were created. Revelation consists, in its perfect form, in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, God made man. This revelation is available to man today through Christ’s continued presence in His Church, the Body of Christ, which is made manifest through both Sacred Scripture and Tradition. Sacred Scripture and Tradition are not separate entities, but rather form a single unity, in which consists all truth that Christ intended His Church to know. The focus of this paper will be on establishing the idea that tradition is indeed an intrinsic part of revelation, and is thus not only important, but in fact necessary.

Revelation is God revealing Himself in a personal way in order that man may attain the end for which he was created. God created man to be completely fulfilled by nothing other than Him. This desire for the infinite, if given no way to be satisfied, would render man absurd, claims Aquinas[1]. In order for man to make sense after the fall (as it leaves man in a state of separation from God), God chooses, in His goodness, to give man a way to Him, termed revelation. It began with God beginning to form His chosen people Israel through His covenants with their ancestors[2], to prepare a nation from which His Son could come, for the salvation of all humanity. In the fullness of time[3], God sent His only Son into the world, to fulfil all that had previously been promised to Israel, and to bring about the possibility of humanity sharing in the divine life of God, the purpose for which he was made. This Incarnation of the Word is the most perfect revelation- the person of God Himself being revealed in a tangible manner, a way that is comprehensible to physical beings. The relationship between the Old and New Testaments is put succinctly by St Augustine: “The old is the new concealed, and the new is the old revealed.”[4]

Tradition may be succinctly summarised as being the transmission of revelation[5]. For both Israel and the New Israel, the Church, this transmission occurs through oral, written and lived means. Oral tradition is centred on teaching authentic interpretation of the written revelation[6], which is chiefly found in the divinely inspired sacred scriptures, held to be God’s Word. This written Word, however, is formed within and shaped by a pre-existing oral tradition, some of which is crystallised into writing over time. Tradition is not, however, a static thing, it is lived, previously in the life of Israel and currently in the Church. The life of the Church includes the liturgy, worship, and sacraments, which were instituted by Christ and are ordered towards making His continued presence[7] within the Church a mystical reality. Transmission of revelation also involves defending God’s truth against errors[8], and so when the Church has encountered false doctrines, she has reflected on “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints”[9], and gained deeper understanding of these truths, in order to refute the heretics and to reaffirm the faith of the Church. These insights are incorporated into tradition, as they are essential to the faithful transmission of revelation.

To prepare the culture in which He would send the Messiah, God chose the Israelite people. Over many centuries He established covenants with them, and gradually developed and deepened their understanding of Him as their God, and they as His people[10]. The divine plan was that He would provide Israel with enough knowledge of God and His promises such that when God Himself came among them they would be able to recognise Him and accept the gift He wished to give[11]. As God interacted with His people in human history, an oral tradition developed, out of which the Old Testament gradually came[12]. But oral tradition did not cease to exist once things started to be written down. It continued to co-exist with the written Word of God[13], and consisted of “an oral interpretation passed down by the teachers of Israel in all ages, explaining how the scriptures should be understood”[14]. This oral tradition both consists of and is forged by the living tradition of the People of God, who are an organised community, with their own culture and way of life, which is continually shaped by the Word of God. Each change in thought, situation or practice that came about in this community as a result of a new or repeated message from God “became a sacred deposit; this was built up into a tradition which was then handed on”[15]. This notion of “handing on” is the very basis of a “tradition”[16], whether this tradition is a truth, interpretation, or practice. Thus oral tradition was an integral aspect of the preservation of God’s revelation to His people, and was just as important as those parts of revelation that were written down.

Jesus repeatedly approves of tradition as a valid source of revelation. He refers to the seat of Moses[17], telling the people to observe what the Pharisees tell them, since by sitting on the seat of Moses they have particular authority. This is despite there being no mention of the seat of Moses in the Old Testament[18]. During the feast of the Tabernacles, a traditional practice existed[19] of pouring water in memory of the water from the Rock[20]. Jesus’ words and the writer’s subsequent explanation[21] in John 7 suggest that he was utilising the rabbinic tradition[22] that held that this “symbolised the pouring forth of the Spirit in the days of the Messiah”[23]. There is evidence that Jesus fulfilled certain Jewish messianic expectations that are only hinted at in the Old Testament. One specific example is the idea that the messiah would be a new Moses who would bring about a new exodus to a new promised land, and that there would be a new temple, as well as new manna to sustain them, and each of these would be greater than the original versions[24]. Given that the relationship between God’s revelation to Israel and that given in the person of Jesus is one of fulfilment, not negation[25], it seems reasonable that the notion of there being an authoritative tradition will not only remain in the New Covenant, but will be embraced and transformed[26].

The idea that Jesus intended for Christian revelation to be preserved in tradition is further reinforced in the fact that the emphasis for his Church[27] was on preaching the gospel, not writing it down. The primary focus of the early Church was obeying Christ’s command to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations”[28], and to be his “witnesses… to the end of the earth”[29]. Jesus’ gathering of a particular group of disciples whom he taught specially is very much in line with the Jewish model of rabbis, who, with their students, “formed the links of a chain of transmission going back to Moses himself”[30]. Jesus never wrote down anything, and nowhere is it recorded that he commanded his apostles to do so either. The New Testament writers themselves testify to the necessity that the believers should hold fast to all that had been given to them, whether they had received it orally or by writings[31]. The unanimous witness of the Church Fathers indicates that, from the earliest days of the Church, it was understood that the rule of faith was the apostolic witness, that which had been handed on by the apostles, and preserved by the Christian faithful[32]. Hence, it was never intended that tradition should cease to function as the means of preserving revelation in the New Covenant.

The very person of Jesus is revelation itself, since He is God incarnate, which renders his life revelation in actions[33], and as such all of revelation can never been contained in a book. A book is inherently incapable of conveying the experience of encountering a person in all its fullness. The New Testament scriptures themselves admit that not everything that Jesus said and did was written down[34]. So it is clear that not the entirety of what Jesus revealed is contained in Scripture. Jesus, as the eternal Word, makes the Word manifest through his every action, speech, his character, personality- through every aspect of his very person. God says that his Word never comes back empty, and always accomplishes its purpose[35]. Thus no part of His Word should be considered inadequate, unimportant, or inferior to the written Word found in Scripture. For God’s revelation to not have been in vain, it is necessary that somehow Jesus should remain with his Church, so that all who follow him through the ages should be able to encounter him in the fullness of his person, otherwise an intimate relationship, or communion, with him would not be possible. Thus, through the Spirit of Truth, Christ is made present to his people in the life and teachings of the Church, particularly in the sacraments, of which Christ is the true minister. Most especially pertinent is the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, where it is made possible for the Body of Christ to receive the Body of Christ, and truly become what they are called to be. Hence, Jesus, as revelation itself, the continuing presence of whom resides in the Church through tradition, establishes revelation and tradition as essentially the same manifestation of himself.

To highlight the necessity of Tradition as an integral part of revelation, the consequences of rejecting it will be briefly examined. At the time of the Reformation, Martin Luther’s doctrine of “sola scriptura” which essentially states that scripture is the Christian’s rule of faith, and highest authority on matters of faith and morals[36], elevates scripture at the expense of tradition, and thus gravely undermines the very essence of revelation. Such thinking eventually and inevitably led many people to completely reject any possibility of there being extra-biblical revelation. In the very act of introducing their novel teachings, the Reformers showed that they thought the visible Church was not able to transmit revelation uncorrupted, and thus set a precedent for any individual to challenge any other individual or institution’s interpretation of scripture. Scripture alone was never the rule of faith for the early Christians[37]. It couldn’t possibly have been so before the Christian canon was formalised[38]. The witness of the early Christians shows that the criteria for being considered a faithful church in full communion with the Body of Christ, was that the church was faithful to the apostolic traditions[39]. When this criterion is discarded and is replaced by “being faithful to what scripture teaches”, it inescapably leads to divisions within the Body of Christ, evidenced by the many thousands of Protestant denominations existing today. This reality does not at all reflect what Christ prayed for in the garden of Gethsemane for his Church- “that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me.”[40] Thus, to divorce scripture and tradition, rather than accepting them as the coherent unity of revelation, is a grave error, that attempts to divide Christ himself, and inevitably leads to the serious ramification of division in his Body, the Church.

Having the understanding that revelation is restricted to purely scripture ultimately makes it impossible to have any certainty about what truths God intended the scriptures to convey. This is because scripture has been taken out of the context of the transmission of revelation in which it was meant to be read. To encounter and have faith in Jesus in his entire person, and therefore be in communion with him and thus receive salvation, it is necessary to have access to Christ’s abiding presence in his Church. This presence is identified with the action of the Holy Spirit preserving the living tradition of the Church, and guiding her into all truth[41]. Thus, because tradition is both the content and preservation of revelation, it is fundamentally necessary, and therefore important, for the salvation and fulfilment of the human person.
REFERENCE LIST:

Aquinas, Thomas, Sententia libri Ethicorum, in Sancti Thomae de Aquino Opera Omnia, Iussu Leonis XIII P. M. Edita, vol. 47/I-II, (Rome: Editori di San Tommaso, 1969)

Augustine, Quaestiones in Heptateuchum, 2, 73, J. P. Migne (ed.) Patrologia Latina, 34, 623 (Paris, 1841-1855)

Balthasar, Hans Urs von, Word and Revelation, (New York: Herder and Herder, 1964)

Benoit, Pierre., Murphy, Roland., & Van Hersel, Bastiaan. (Eds.), The Dynamism of Biblical Tradition, (New York: Paulist Press, 1967)

Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2^nd Edition, English translation for USA (Washington, USA: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997)

Darlap, Adolf (Ed.), Sacramentum Mundi Book 2, (London: Burns & Oates, 1969)

Fuller, Reginald (Ed.), A New Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, (London: Nelson, 1969)

Haddad, Robert, Defend the Faith! (Sydney: Lumen Verum Apologetics, 2003)

Hastings, Adrian (Ed.), The Oxford Companion to Christian Thought, p.402 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000)

Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Bk. 3, Ch. 3, Patrologia Graeca, J. P. Migne (Ed.) (Paris, 1857)

Kelly, J. N. D., Early Christian Creeds, (London: Continuum, 2006)

Morerod, Charles, O.P. The Church and the Human Quest for Truth (Ave Maria: Sapientia, 2008)

Nichols, Aidan, The Shape of Catholic Theology (New York: Continuum, 1991)

Onions, C. T., The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966)

Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus, the Apostles, and the Early Church, (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2007)

Ray, Stephen, Crossing the Tiber- Evangelical Protestants Discover the Historical Church, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997)

Second Vatican Council. Decree Ad Gentes On the Mission Activity of the Church (December 7, 1965). www.vatican.va, accessed 27 May 2012

Shopp, John (Ed.), The Harper-Collins Encyclopedia of Catholicism, (New York: Harper Collins, 1995)

The Holy Bible Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004)

Willis, John, The Teachings of the Church Fathers, (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002)

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Aquinas, Thomas, Sententia libri Ethicorum, in Sancti Thomae de Aquino Opera Omnia, Iussu Leonis XIII P. M. Edita, vol. 47/I-II, (Rome: Editori di San Tommaso, 1969)

Augustine, Quaestiones in Heptateuchum, 2, 73, J. P. Migne (ed.) Patrologia Latina, 34, 623 (Paris, 1841-1855)

Balthasar, Hans Urs von, Word and Revelation, (New York: Herder and Herder, 1964)

Benoit, Pierre., Murphy, Roland., & Van Hersel, Bastiaan. (Eds.), The Dynamism of Biblical Tradition, (New York: Paulist Press, 1967)

Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church: 2^nd Edition, English translation for USA (Washington, USA: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997)

Congar, Yves, Tradition and Traditions, (London: Burns & Oates, 1966)