Contend for the Faith Part 2 - By T. M. Moore

Second Sight

Contend for the Faith
Part II - Anti-Traditionalism and Ahistoricalism

By T. M. Moore

March 1, 2006

“So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.” (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

Protestants in general and evangelicals in particular are characterized by a wariness of, if not an outright aversion to, tradition. For a great many contemporary Christians, “tradition” smacks of things old, meaningless, or confining. Not all traditions, to be sure—we still cherish many aspects of the Advent and Easter seasons, not to mention certain secular holidays, which our parents and grandparents observed. We hold on to these traditions for their sentimental value. However, in the main, Christians today have adopted the chic contemporary view of all things traditional or historical: What could this possibly have to do with me?

This scorn for tradition—“anti-traditionalism”—and for the past in general—“ahistoricalism”—takes a variety of forms. In Christian worship it can mean abandoning traditional hymns, forms of music and liturgy, and even approaches to communicating God’s Word. It involves a studied lack of interest in anything written in previous generations, especially anything ancient—only what is hot and new is worth reading. It is exhibited by Christians who are woefully ignorant of the vast, rich heritage of Christian cultural achievement but who do not consider themselves to be in the least disadvantaged for it. It is visible in the seemingly unquenchable need that some church leaders demonstrate for always finding new ways to do and say things, all “old” methods and ways—including the precious heritage of doctrine and Christian confession—being regarded as inapt for our contemporaries. The anti-traditionalism and ahistoricalism of our day is much more in tune with the spirit of the age than with the spirit of the Church that transcends all ages.

To many it seems altogether smart and hip to scorn tradition, to live history-free, as it were. After all, didn’t Jesus warn against the vanity and snares of human traditions (Matthew 15:1-9)? And haven’t we allowed our fetish for tradition—the language we use, the music we sing, the way we worship—and our allegiance to history to get in the way of reaching a generation of people who are desperately in search of something new? So put away all these vain snares and stumbling blocks! Break free from confining traditions and irrelevant histories and branch out in fresh, new ways! Surely this is the way into the light of life?

Well, no.

THE ROLE OF TRADITION IN SCRIPTURE
As unlikely or even contradictory as it may seem, the Scriptures urge a healthy place for history and tradition in the life of faith, as we see in Paul’s exhortation in 2 Thessalonians 2. The Bible warns against disregarding or departing from the history and traditions of our faithful forebears. Over and over, wayward leaders and forgetful generations are called upon to remember the faith of Abraham and the fathers, to return to the Law of Moses, to sing again the songs and recite the covenantal commitments of previous generations. They are warned not to move the ancient landmarks their forebears observed. Individuals such as Moses, David, and Solomon were led to create beautiful and enduring cultural forms—songs, poems, public works, liturgical spaces and traditions—that served generations of the faithful in celebrating God’s works and remembering who they were and what they were to be about. Further, every generation of Israelites was sternly warned against forsaking the traditions of their ancestors and neglecting their history; for if they did so, they would surely begin to mingle with and assimilate themselves to the more widely practiced traditions of their pagan contemporaries, with disastrous effects.

Jesus frequently commended Himself and His ministry by reference to the teachings of the ancients; and He chided His contemporary detractors whenever they overstepped the bounds of proper tradition or tried to substitute new, man-made traditions for those which had been proven in the past: “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did . . .” (John 8:39).

The apostles rooted their teaching and practice in tested tradition, which they had received from the Lord as well as inherited from the faithful of the past. So much of what the first Christians cherished under the leadership of the apostles—their local gatherings, the oversight of trusted elders, their core convictions and beliefs, and the care they exercised for the weak members of their communities—had come to them as traditional ways and means of receiving and distributing the blessings of God. Both Paul and John warned their readers against those who would lead them to forsake such traditions. The apostles saw themselves as stewards of those traditions, called to conserve and advance them into the present and future generations. Any idea about neglecting, denying, abandoning, or re-inventing those traditions would have been unthinkable to them.

THE INESCAPABILITY OF TRADITION
The fact is, try as we may, none of us can avoid living within the framework of some kind of tradition. We may denounce the tradition of the Roman Catholic magisterium, preferring instead our favorite Reformed confession. We may tout our Pentecostal values against the ordered predictability of a “traditional” congregation. We may snort at “high church” practices and traditions as we take up our electric guitars to worship the Lord in the cultural garb of our postmodern age. We may advertise ourselves as free of all historical and denominational ties, thus commending ourselves to the public as independent of all church tradition.

Yet all such anti-traditionalism and ahistoricalism is merely the invoking of one tradition over another, the attempt to create a new history in place of a repudiated one, not the escaping of tradition or history altogether. Even if it’s nothing more than the currently fashionable tradition of rejecting all things traditional and “re-emerging” the Church out of the ashes into some new phoenix of faith, it’s still a tradition—not one with much of a pedigree or proven track record, but a tradition nonetheless, complete with its own gurus, gimmicks, gewgaws, and gawking admirers. And it is trying to rewrite the history of the Church for the foreseeable future, but with not much of a historical platform from which to launch, and little in the way of a trajectory of tradition by which to assess it.

Today’s anti-traditionalists and ahistoricalists cannot completely escape the tradition and history they seek so eagerly to avoid. They still sing about the cross and the empty tomb, dramatize a morality of love for neighbors, assemble at familiar times for the rituals of the faith, and make use of disciplines and practices handed down from the generations that have preceded them in the Church. For all their attempts to deny their ancient or recent provenance, or to condemn the traditions of other communions, today’s anti-traditionalists and ahistoricalists, of whatever stripe, cannot escape immersion in some elements of the longstanding heritage of the life of faith, even as they earnestly work to create new traditions and begin new histories, packaging them for the consumption of curious inquirers and aspiring wannabes.

In the midst of all this tradition-denying and history re-writing we would do well to consider Paul’s admonition to the Thessalonians: “Stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught by us.” We cannot live apart from some traditions, some immersion in history. So we’d better make certain that, whatever course we steer, we are careful to connect our chosen practices with those of the apostles and of the generations who, having received, adapted, and practiced those traditions with the evident blessing of God, have preserved the faith of Christ for our benefit today.

RECOVERING THE PLACE OF TRADITION
We can draw a trajectory of blessing from the faithful remnant of the Old Testament, through the believing communities of the New Testament, the house churches of the early Church, the city and metropolitan churches of the third and fourth century, the monasteries and faith communities of the middle ages, the cathedrals of the renaissance, and the churches of the Reformation period—including the Catholic reformation—all the way to the present.

In every age, faithful preachers and teachers, keeping an eye on the Church’s past and holding fast to the traditions of the apostles, have been used to lead the people of God to realize the blessings promised to His flock. To ignore, deny, denounce, or denigrate the practices of these faithful forebears—to cut ourselves off from their history and traditions—is to declare to the world that we owe no debt of gratitude to those who have suffered that we might believe, and who paid with their tears and blood to ensure that the traditions they cherished and the historical place in which they stood would be available for us in our day. To take up the chant of today’s anti-traditionalists and ahistoricalists is to invoke the mantra that Job ascribed to his arrogant and uncaring interlocutors: Surely we are the people, and when we die, wisdom dies with us (Job 12:1).

Let us follow the exhortations of Scripture and root ourselves firmly in the traditions of God’s people as the apostles received, interpreted, and transmitted them to us. Ask your church leaders about the things you do in worship: the songs you sing, the order of the liturgy, the ways the message of the Word is communicated. Inquire about the subject matter in the educational offerings of the church. And why the church has—or does not have—elders or deacons. Listen for ways the two-thousand-year-old tradition of the Church is being preserved, and ask further about things that seem to scorn the ways of our forebears, preferring instead some method or vocabulary or modus operandi designed to appeal in the first instance to the traditions and history of our modern or postmodern generation. Do some reading; learn about the traditions, histories, and practices of other communions; talk with Christians from other churches, looking for ways you can connect with them along the trajectory of the longstanding tradition and history of the Church.

It may be chic to advertise ourselves as free of stodgy old traditions and confining histories. But it is not wise. Or obedient to the Word of God. Anti-traditionalism and ahistoricalism have blazed the trail of more than one dangerous heresy in the past; we have every reason to believe that this way might lead to dragons yet again.

FOR REFLECTION
How much do you know about the history, traditions, and practices of your church? Or of how your church attempts to connect with the two-thousand-year tradition of the Church of Jesus Christ worldwide? Would you consider yourself obedient to Paul’s exhortation in 2 Thessalonians 2:15? On what grounds?