The Place of Content within Tradition

 

A critique against the Orthodox church is their valuation of tradition. Tradition does not overrule or replace Holy Scripture. Instead, Holy Scripture needs to be understood within the context of tradition. “That which the Church has always believed and practiced” is the definition of tradition. Tradition is not about man made rules or practices but is the truth handed down by the apostles to subsequent generations, it is unwritten belief and practice.

While tradition is a necessary and unavoidable foundation for historic Christianity, this does not mean that the method of teaching doesn’t change. The worldview and language in which the Church was born is vastly different than the world in which we live today. Because culture and knowledge has radically changed over the past 2000 years, so too much our approach and methodology but not the content.

The way we talk must change but what we teach cannot.