Tradition and Epistemology

Most Protestants believe that Tradition -- the substance of the Church's reflection on Scripture that has emerged over the last 2000 years -- is not a proper source of theological authority. Instead, many argue, that Sacred Scripture is the only proper source and it should be set against Tradition.

This is highly problematic. While in the abstract, it is correct that a particular belief or idea is not necessarily true just because it has been believed or practiced for a long time, it does not follow that Tradition ought to be rejected on these grounds. The impulse, indeed the need, to accept Tradition and bow to its authority is based on a proper understanding of the limits of human knowing and a right posture to the knowledge of others.

The need to accept authoritative Tradition is based on a kind of benefit of the doubt epistemology. If a certain Christian belief or practice is in question who should receive the benefit if the doubt, the contemporary interpreter who has a new reading of a given text(s) of scripture or the consensual reading of the Church's Great Tradition?

I argue that the Tradition gets the benefit of the doubt. I understand that in the abstract the contemporary interpreter may be correct and the Tradition wrong. But how do I know that? Really, in the end, only God knows for sure. But from my vantage point, the most prudent and wise response is to go with the consensual view from Tradition.

In my own Anglican Church there is a debate about whether or not homosexual behavior is legitimate Christian practice. Some are arguing that fresh insight from Sacred Scripture should lead the Church down a new path. Others (the majority) argue that the Church should stay with its traditional beliefs and practices regarding human sexuality.

Those who want to revise the Church's teaching may well be correct that the Church has been wrong about this issue. But the prudent and reasonable question to ask is, "Which source should receive the benefit of the doubt, the traditional view or the revisionist view?" Asked this way, one ought clearly to bow to the Tradition.

Embracing the Great Tradition is the most reasonable and prudent way forward in discerning proper Christian belief and practice. To reject it is unwise and possibly tainted by hubris.