Tradition

TRADITION* EVEN those who have followed the progress of the Council with a distracted mind, and have gotten their information from the newspapers, could hardly miss the rather lively debate which arose concerning the schema for the decree, " the Sources of Revelation," as well as about the relation between "Scripture and Tradition." A dogmatic decree on the deposit of the faith would necessarily touch on the question of the sources of Christian faith; " that contained in the written books and the unwritten traditions." This had already occurred at the First Vatican Council (Sess. III, chap. 2, Denz. 1787) . Without speaking here of the doctrinal and pastoral reasons which led the preliminary Commission to prepare a project on this question, without mentioning again the discussions of which this project was the object throughout six "general congregations" (Nov. 14-21), and without approaching , for its own sake, the problem about the " two sources " and the connections between Scripture and tradition, we could profitably present here a very quick sketch about the origins of the notion of tradition as a status quaestionis which could be helpful towards understanding the scope of these debates.1 *Translated by F. C. Lehner, 0. P. 1 Concerning this debate, one can profitably read, in addition to newspaper reports , Yves M. J. Congar, Le Concile au jour le jour. Paris, 1963, pp. 63-71; and Rene Laurentin, L'enjeu du Concile. II. "Bilan de Ia premiere session." Paris, 1963, pp. 27-35. It is useful to note that, whatever certain persons thought about the matter, the Fathers who sought to safeguard the vocabulary of the Council of Trent concerning the Gospel as the " sole source of the truth of salvation," did not have the intention of rejecting tradition in order to go back to the Protestant principle about " Scripture alone." We cannot possibly present even an abridged bibliography on tradition here. Let us only indicate the following recent works: H. Holstein, La Tradition dans l'Eglise. Paris, 1960; Y. M. J. Cougar, La Tradition et les traditions. Essai historique . Paris, 1960 (The same author is planning to publish a theological study 18~ TRADITION 183 First of all, it can be said that tradition (paradosis), the living transmission of a truth, is an essential and constitutive element in the religion of Jesus Christ. Of course, the word " tradition " (paradosis) is found in the gospels only in the sense of Jewish " traditions," human traditions which the sovereign authority of Jesus' word opposes: "You have heard that it was said to the ancients . . . But I say to you . . ." (Matt. 5: 21 etc.) . And what He says to them is a new tradition , a divine tradition which Jesus wants to substitute for the human traditions in which the Jews had enclosed themselves at the expense of the Word of God. Everything is contained in these few words of Jesus: "All things have been delivered (transmitted, tradita, paredothen) to me by my Father" (Matt. 11: 27) . " All things I have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (John 15: 15). "As the Father has sent me, so also I send you" (John 20: 21). "Go into the whole world and preach the gospel [good news] to every creature " (Mark 16: 15) . Jesus is the one who reveals and transmits the secrets of the Father and He sends His apostles to transmit (tmdere) to the peoples what He Himself has transmitted to them. The Church of Jesus Christ has received the message of revelation to transmit it to men; the apostle in the Church is sent to transmit this message which comes from Christ, the word of God. Thus God's revelation, transmitted to men by Jesus Christ and those He has sent, continues to be transmitted by oral teaching, living in the life of the Church. This transmission is bound up with the apostolic mission, as well as with the living presence of Jesus Christ in His Church and of the Spirit He has promised and sent (Cf., e. g. Matt. 28: 20; John 14: 26; 16:13 etc.). Revelation, tradition, apostolate , and Church are indissolubly united concepts and realities. Even St. Paul has some well-crystallized expressions anent these...