Innovation: A Debate over the Role of Tradition
A series of controversies in the early church brought home the theological importance of the concept of “tradition.” The word “tradition” comes from the Latin term traditio which means “handing over,” “handing down,” or “handing on.” Both the notion and practice of “handing down” can be found in the New Testament. For example, Paul reminded his readers that he was handing on to them core teachings of the Christian faith which he had himself received from other people of significance (1 Corinthians 15:1–4).
The term “tradition” can refer to both the action of passing teachings on to others – something which Paul insists must be done within the church – and to the body of apostolic teachings which are passed on in this manner (1.1.5). Tradition can thus be understood as a process as well as a body of teaching. The Pastoral Epistles (three later New Testament letters that are particularly concerned with questions of church structure, and the passing on of Christian teaching: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus) in particular stress the impor- tance of “guarding the good deposit which was entrusted to you” (2 Timothy 1:14). The New Testament also uses the notion of “tradition” in a negative sense, meaning something like “human ideas and practices which are not divinely authorized.” Thus Jesus of Nazareth was openly critical of certain traditions within Judaism which he regarded as human con- structions (e.g., see Matthew 15:1–6; Mark 7:13).
