And now, back to our regular programming.
As we have been talking about Holy Tradition, part of the problem that I see is that many people want Holy Tradition to be a list of canons, a list of practices, a list of dress codes, a list of personal grooming codes, etc., all of which can be easily parsed so that it is possible to easily tell when one is following Holy Tradition and when one is not. That is, what many wish is not Holy Tradition but rather Holy Law, a codified definition that lets you know, without shadow of doubt or mistake, when you have transgressed Holy Tradition and when you have followed Holy Tradition. The effect of this attitude is a legalism that equates every practice with eternal doctrine, almost to the point of putting one’s salvation in peril should one “transgress” against their list of rules.
But, although fewer within Orthodoxy, there is another set of people who re-define Holy Tradition as merely a set of current disciplinary and culturally bound canons. This attitude makes Holy Tradition to be only the current ethos of the Church, an ethos that can be changed, as needed, in order to supposedly inculturate the Church. However, what I have noticed is that, rather quickly, the discussion begins as to who is allowed to make the changes. Not surprisingly, in this American culture, the discussion rather quickly heads towards the local congregation and even to the local believer. So, you end up with every believer making the decision as to whether and when to fast, whether and when to do most anything in the Christian life. And little by little, the life of the Body degenerates into the life of the individual. To use a more theological term, this is the descent into antinomianism.
So, what then is Holy Tradition?
—More to come tomorrow—
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