What is Tradition? Part three

Author note:  This is the third (and final for now) part to my discussion on tradition.

In the first two parts of my discussion on the topic of tradition, I started with a definition of tradition, and provided some perspectives on tradition and how it has fit into the concepts of faith and religion.  I’m going to cover one final concept, tying it into religion, and then attempt to close.

Another element of tradition is culture.  Whether you look at a community as something provided from your parents (ethnicity), or a common experience (the military might fit into this), the common tradition you share with others is what binds you together as a community.  When I look at my childhood and growing up, I can identify different traditions.  Some of them were due to society (holiday picnics/fireworks displays), some coming directly from my family (what we did for vacations).  These events, along with stories told about my siblings and parents, became a ‘tradition’.  Who I am both in family and in society has, in no small part, been driven by tradition.

Bringing this to religion in general, and Christianity in particular, this is where the concept of the ‘body of believers’ comes in.  Tradition is something that gives you a history and a lineage that goes back through time.  Whether it’s specific prayers, or statements of belief, all the different denominations have a tradition.  The continuing pattern of culture, patterns, and beliefs in the Orthodox Church is a connection with the many believers throughout the centuries and down to the present time in all the Orthodox Churches in the world today. The Orthodox Church has a tradition and line that can be shown to go back to Pentecost.  This tradition ties you as a member back to the beginnings of the church.

In looking at different protestant denominations, some of them may have a tradition that goes back as far as 1517 (the beginning of the Protestant reformation), and there are others may go back only to the last century.  Their tradition is short, or even almost non-existent.  Or it may be incomplete, as the culture, pattern, or even the belief is different now than what it was at the founding of that denomination.  When looking at them, there is ultimately no tradition that ties them back through the centuries to Pentecost or Christ.  They may claim to be true to the teaching of the apostles, but without the tradition to back it up, it just doesn’t fit the definition that we started with.

Well,I hope you enjoyed this.  It's certainly been mind-stretching for me.