Listening in Tradition
Foundation for Listening
The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way.
Tradition passes down from generation to generation the church's ongoing experience of God's presence and activity.
In Christian theology, tradition originally referred simply to that which had been handed down to the church from the prophets and the apostles concerning belief in God and God's redemptive work in Christ. Before the development of an authorized canon of Hebrew and Christian scriptures, the oral teaching of the Apostles and their successors formed the Christian tradition. Gradually, however, the term took on different meanings to include, for example, the authorized teaching of church councils and commonly accepted creedal formulations. By the time of the middle ages it had taken on the sense of an authentic body of teaching in addition to scripture. Such an understanding of tradition was rejected by the Reformers, who appealed only to the authority of scripture itself. Article XXXIV of the Articles of Religion took a mediating position, admitting the authority of traditions so long as they were not "repugnant to the Word of God, and be ordained and approved by common authority." Anglicanism reflects balance in its devotion to scripture, tradition, and reason as sources of authority.
Each of the three sources of authority must be perceived and interpreted in light of the other two.
The Anglican balance of authority has been characterized as a "three-legged stool" which falls if any one of the legs is not upright. It may be distinguished from a tendency in Roman Catholicism to overemphasize tradition relative to scripture and reason, and in certain Protestant churches to overemphasize scripture relative to tradition and reason. The Anglican balancing of the sources of authority has been criticized as clumsy or "muddy." It has been associated with the Anglican affinity for seeking the mean between extremes and living the via media. It has also been associated with the Anglican willingness to tolerate and comprehend opposing viewpoints instead of imposing tests of orthodoxy or resorting to heresy trials
Adapted from An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church: A User-Friendly Reference for Episcopalians Don S. Armentrout, Robert Boak Slocum, editors. Church Publishing Incorporated, New York NY: 2000. Used with permission.
