DEFINITION:

The initial Greek word PARADOSIS or Latin TRADERE have both the same fundamental meaning: transmitting, handing over. It is because the transmitted beliefs, customs are considered so essential by a community or individual that one endeavours to express it properly and passes them over to others.

As a community it receives- and in optimal conditions will, simultaneously, try to pass it on, in a specific form and expression, accordingly and in response to the prevailing (and mostly changing) conditions. This process is characterized by a tension between loyalty and creativity; thus by an urge for identification with this tradition and the need to make it relevant. Those two forces have to keep each other in constant balance and are crucial to the survival and meaning/relevancy of the essence of this tradition.

CHRISTIAN TRADITION AND ITS ESSENTIAL CONTENT

HUMAN EXPRESSION:
The Christian tradition is the human expression and response of Gods partnership with his creation, particularly mankind. It reflects and makes transparent for us the transcendent Otherness and His relevancy for the cosmos and mankind. God’s communications/revelations and historical activities are the main subjects and have been put down in images and a communicative language.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this tradition is to realize a communion with God through Jesus Christ by proclaiming the Good Tidings and Jesus as the Christ and to offer the necessary means/graces and inspirations to realize this communion all through the long, varied and often contrasting history.

It is as a transmission mechanism of an experience, which contains an activating, stimulating element to step in, participate at this holy experience, to learn from it, live with and for it and transmit/share this living giving experience to others and other generations.

This tradition is also the interpreting spectacles, scope which is constantly building an interpreting (hermeneutic) circles between the object of the Christian faith and the practical daily life. The Christian tradition is on itself subject of an act of faith (trust) and thus considered to be the most proper soil to live and grow in. The preaching (Word) and the daily practice of the faithful are both the vehicle to inspire this trust.

For the faithful living in this faith there is or should be automatically a practical application in their daily lives so that their lives become a Gospel to other people and bring them to accept and enter the same tradition and accept Jesus as their Saviour and guide for their live.

Needless to say that this theory is very much complicated and or corrupted by the overall human (socially as well on a personal level) tendency to make traditional expressions (verbal or bodily) and rites absolute and of eternal value and validity. On top the little impact in daily life of the institute church or the personal lives of the faithful makes this act of faith a real act of God.

Now many claim that we have to day a never seen before such a fundamental crisis in this respect. Is this so?

1.It cannot be denied that there is an ever-growing and strong crisis in faith; particularly the institute church is subject of mistrust and rejection. This phenomena can been seen in all western or developed countries. Mostly poorly understood and never appreciated this crisis is a cause for ever-growing frustration for the people in charge.

2.A crisis triggered by a drastic change in knowledge, political, social and cultural factors and mostly by a changing view on the world is however also a good moment – a catharsis – to start creating a learning process, to re- discover the Tradition and the fundamental and relevant elements so to receive strength and encouragement of this Tradition. History is repeating itself be it with variations and we can see that many structural crisis in The past 20 centuries of Christian history do prove us that again and again Tradition as a concept has been subject of a tremendous broad scope in appreciation and to drastic changes and adaptations.

It was also often abused and used as a pretext to stop all change. In fact it is the most solid used argument in particularly religious movements for adopting a very conservative, fundamental attitude.

The Orthodox Churches have also, quite frequently, used Tradition in a very limiting sense, making it of heavenly creation and thus of eternal absolute relevance. The preservation of the content and the expressions of a specific historical time was too often the main concern over the actual active practicing and transmission.

Let us consider a few remarks to clear the problem a bit more:

1.The western religious tradition complex is rapidly disintegrating (socially and culturally). The growing internationalisation and ever-growing communication do seem to eat up the reassuring, protecting and identity-giving aspect of social, cultural groups and particularly religious institutes. Traditional faiths see the number of followers dwindling every day and are faced with a growing loss of their relevancy even for those who still officially adhere to them. The classical “ church” is loosing its social role and relevancy and is disappearing slowly from the horizon.

2. What are the main constitutive elements of faith/tradition?
2.1 the personal faith (experience) on itself; here we only can see the growing difficulty of so many to fit the transcendent element into their daily life
2.2 the faith/tradition community: the church, a growing loss of authority and secularisation-process is commonly spread all over developed countries. The organisation on itself, still characterized by a fundamental lack of communication, is seen as a burden and often as treason to the Gospel itself.
2.3. The social, cultural and economical world we live in is showing an ever-growing number of fundamental views and concepts, a continuous prevailing spirit of rationalisation and a globalisation trend.
All three aspects are interrelated and do make an analyses of the present exodus from Christian churches extremely difficult and uncertain.

3. Many aspects, formerly considered by the churches as their exclusive job to explain, do find a logical and clear definition and explanation by scientifically based or verified facts and explanations. This is evident when the “ how question” has to be filled in. Many times only the “ why question” can be properly answered by this same institutes.

4. Tradition is seen as an unchangeable framework (content and expressions) by many members implicitly but also many times explicitly. Obviously the Gospel of the Lord is a too high demand for many individuals who cannot bear a proper responsibility but who have a need for a religious “ security”/ framework. For those faithful the church leaders have created an authority-structure, which is determining for the faithful what is good and bad, what they have to believe/ practice and which is offering fixed rites. Religion is thus perceived as a functional system for the person - religion in function of human needs.

The Gospel, however, is very hard for this kind of formal behaviour but how can the church responsible neglect or even disregard this rather important segment of their faithful? They cannot and have, accordingly the same Gospel, to bear with them and try to convert them into a personal relationship and a practical individual and social real Christian life. Needless to state, this situation is a steady dilemma for the church leaders and a permanent source of irritation for all people involved.

5. It is too easy to speak about conservative/progressive as the only two groups of conflicting parties. (Be it hopefully in a tension but always in mutual respect and careful attention for each other.) In fact each individual is generally speaking handicapped with a mixture of both tendencies. Also on an individual level those tendencies should remain in discussion, require a proper balance and reflection. Under those conditions this tension will be a blessing and accepted as a fundamental aspect of our Christian life.

Is this crisis a challenge or a cursed burden?

I, myself a western European Orthodox, with the burden and fruits of many decades of a business and social life, a more than average luggage on theological, liturgical and exegetical topics and the experience of a world traveller, can only express my growing frustration that the Gospel of the Lord as presented by the Orthodox Churches in their impressive expressions (such as liturgies) and their traditions seems to bear but little fruits and have lost their appeal to the world. My very strong love for the living traditions of the Orthodox and Eastern Churches, my active commitment to preserve and re-activate do not spare me to be faced with many questions, tensions and frustrations.

As an active co-celebrant (layman) you find yourself many times very lonely in the services. You also have to state over and over again that the present church language used in liturgy, preaching as well as in the general used speech not only are no longer understood anymore (even not in the classical Orthodox countries like Greece or Russia). Worse, it is conceived too often as coming from a complete strange world without any relevance to this planet and us.

You come to find out that you belong to an always-diminishing number of “informed –introduced-“ “elite” who still understand theoretically the content but with a growing comprehension of the alienation of this language to our life. The church language has become in fact a codified language, which I understand because of the pedagogic result of 40 years of liturgy and study. Unfortunately it speaks about a reality and world, which has lesser and lesser ties with the present life, and world.

I’m facing the danger of living in two worlds, to glide into a schizophrenic situation. Not able to avoid a conclusion that Christian Faith isn’t considering the same world and reality that we study, experience and live in. With our presently known sciences, experiences and concepts that are completely different from the “world” the church language is referring too.

The strong and prevailing sclerosis tendencies within the institutional churches have brought them into a position of conservative hereditary that gives absolute value to all sort of traditions, fixing as a norm rites and rules that where basically only the package. As well as it was in the past the present mind doesn’t seem to like the apophatic (negative) approach, which was always a fundamental aspect of the post apostolic fathers and actually a classical orthodox approach.

Unlike the Greek philosophic and theological systems we do nowadays see that our knowledge is partial and relative and that we always miss the firm grip on reality. It is only very recently that we come slowly to understand that Religion/Faith has nothing to do with the exact science but only with the Holy History: Gods’ partnership with the cosmos and mankind and the actualisation and concretisation in every day’s life.
We also have understood that this is a continuous process that must be realised from within a living tradition and, first of all, is only possible as a gift of God (Grace).

Tradition isn’t static it is dynamic, something that happens, as it is an act of communication.

Once again the basic aim of this process is to pass over the “Christian Story” and this is only realised on two levels: the individual believer and the specific community he and others are living in. Tradition is in the end also a social process. So the main frame of its existence and daily expression will be the living community, the “ church” as its formal organisational expression. In this process the intimate meeting with God, for us “par excellence” realised in Jesus Christ is materialised in the history of all Christian generations and peoples. The large variety in historical conditions in which this Message was presented and actualised is reflected in the sometimes-drastic changes, in the development of the verbal expressions (also the content of Faith) and in the concretisations in daily life. One can even speak of changing concepts and not only of a folding out, a deepening of a given content of faith. Tradition as a consequence is not something above this world and time but does exist in the communities that are receiving and actualising it. To say in other plain words: tradition is a continuous chain of interpretations, a growing out and developing its content, to make it effective for the daily life and generations to come. There is no automatic accumulation effect as the evolution is far from a straight line. It is for sure not a developing system where the Truth is given and defined once and for all and only can be deepened out. For that we do see too drastic changes in our knowledge and experiences that we cannot ignore. In the end all the modifications should be evaluated against the real core of this Tradition.

But what is the CORE?

“God as basis and end goal of our existence.” The Christian tradition thus is the transmitting of a life giving, humanising, experience in relation to the life giving and loving God. An open system, story with as the ultimate perspective God itself.

Jesus Christ who took our nature so that we could recognize as “ People of the road” how to give this life- giving life with God the proper “hands and feet “ in our Christian life and community.

All the previous (future) historical acts of God are to achieve an effective communication/contact with each individual and humanity so that all might recognize that in giving themselves to the Lord they will have a full life and be able to participate actively in the creation process has God started and is supporting. It tells us also in a pedagogic way that we can receive this Spirit of God so that we might come to a clear understanding of our duties and the ways to implement them. Thus the whole Bible is a pedagogic way to teach us how to live our live, as an individual as well as a society.

The Christian tradition has the unique image and inspiring model of the Tri –Unity community. It is the only world religion where we are asked to love God and live accordingly his godly life of communion. It has also the shattering image of the kenosis of God (taking our nature), which accordingly the very old tradition was and is an invitation to an open, caring and loving offer to communion. It does offer simultaneously the orientation to the fulfilling of our destiny.

Thanks to dialectic meeting with the daily reality this same Tradition is also to day life- giving and fulfilling and it appeals to us to safeguard particularly the aims of this Tradition in words and deeds for the “ hic and nunc “.

GODS TREASURE PUT IN EARTEN VASES:

God’s partnership, in his most optimal way, is seen and recognized in Jesus preaching, deeds, life, death and resurrection. This message has been passed, translated and worded during 2.000 years despite the ambiguities of mankind’s history, our changing experiences, knowledge, insights and a wide variety of historical and cultural settings.

Languages, rites, symbols and structures were used; who in themselves were and remain re vulnerable and inadequate to tell the full meaning and impact of this partnership of God. But without those tools no communication, no community!

The overall strong tendencies to fundamentalism, sectarian attitudes and communal egoistic attitudes are a permanent danger to all Christian communities as well who, sometimes being Gods’ people, think already of themselves as Gods themselves. Such communities aren’t that eager to put themselves under the ordeal of the Gospel. Here too the structures assume too often that their concepts and their words are God’s own and direct initiatives. Being in this world but not acting accordingly the usual rules of this world, according Jesus own specific indication, this community has the obligation to see to it that their deeds correspond with their words and that it does remain an hermeneutical community (interpretative) that does need a continuous sourcing and re-interpretation. We must constantly remember ourselves that we are humans and acting and responding correspondingly; with means and ways that are part of our brokenness and imperfect; with a world where communication is essential but extremely difficult, where ordering is logical and listening the exception, where serving and turning ourselves to others in disinterested love and care is more the exception. For Christians and as a Christian community those tendencies are as strong as for others! In changing conditions this community must see to it that it is preaching a trust worthy and inspiring Gospel, acting accordingly; humbly serving the world and remaining under the critic of the Gospel and the guidance of the H.Spirit. Only as such the preached Gospel of the Lord will remain actual and effective, a challenging and meaningful invitation to reflection and action.

SOURCES OF TRADITION

Obvious: that what God has revealed to us. Per excellence we will find it in the “ the traces of God Works” in our history, traces that have been made evident in the library that we call Bible. Bible that is composed over many thousands of years by many different generations. Holy history, which is still written to day! In those Holy Scriptures we find the core of what God has disposed to reveal to His experience and us with mankind. Obviously we see the reaction of those chosen. The particular reply to these actions of God, in words and deeds by humans (individual as well as communities) represent the main elements of this Tradition.

The use of Scriptures will always pose problems, it is in the end humanly translated stories of Gods partnership and on itself always a re- actualised interpretation in view of an actual anticipation of Gods Kingdom. It is the treasure of a community and the critical yardstick and guidance at the same time. Languages however always remain an unreliable mean of communication particularly when so many centuries and civilisations are covered. Lucky enough do we dispose to day of a very well but recently (some decades only) developed knowledge and approach of the Christian Sources. Consequently we are in a far much better position to use the Scriptures properly and in a much fuller sense than even a century before. Nowadays we dispose of scientifically based insights that make it possible to understand what, over centuries, people didn’t grasp and or used against Christianity.

Also thanks to this insights the Gospel does remain a living experience with the Living God and the Holy Spirit is still working to let us open en understand the Scriptures and made them meaningful and life-giving to us who live in Christ as Christ’s body.

TRADITION AS A LIFE-FULLING TASK:

The fullness of life we receive in this Tradition isn’t a purely spiritual blessing. It implies also to be a Christian and a truly Christian community now and in our place. It is here and now that the Good Tiding of the Lord finds its translation and application. Accordingly God’s own humiliation (kenosis) we have to realize this humbly and with sacrifices, joyfully caring and loving our world we presently live in.

It should, accordingly the order of the Lord himself, be realised not as an authoritative body but as an inspiring Christian companionship. It should also offer companionship and orientation. As the Israelites we will have to leave behind our fleshpots, liberate ourselves of our self-satisfaction and scleroses and face the strict order of the lord himself to preach to all people and all times so all people are liberated from their selfish lives and become children of God and as such participate in the realisation of Gods Kingdom to come, that means the fullness of life.

How unworldly and difficult this might be is shown abundantly in the story of the Christian Faith and live and its historical bodies / communities. The, to day hallowed “ Patristic fathers” have in their own body and flesh suffered because of their strive to actualise the Gospel for their own communities. Their efforts to grasp with both the Gospel and the world they were living in and with their specific ways they looked at it resulted in a complete changed concept and syntheses of faith. More particularly in a new wording of newly developed concepts-symbols put down in the dogmas of the church. They had no choice, as it was important for them to open the Scriptures to the mind of the people they had a responsibility over. They compulsory had to use other languages, concepts and images to safeguard the basic issues of the Christian Faith. For that they were considered as modernizing and breaking away from the tradition. Accused of modernism by the “heretics” they also were persecuted, expulsed and hated by many of their brother’s hierarchs who considered that the treasure of faith should be kept and unchanged because of godly origin. How fundamental their efforts were is to day generally accepted and even admired. Particularly in our century the admiration has become very much outspoken even to a point that their thinking, language, structures developed and theological and philosophical concepts have been raised to the status of absolute norm again. A danger to all of us as we like to nourish the idea that we only possess the only and absolute truth and consequently have to take over God’s place and initiative.

As Paul Evdokimov has put it very well: “Tradition is the memory of the church, being the living place of the working Word of God, such that it isn’t never exhausted/used what it bears in depth as life and forms of expressions.” In other words: community as a dynamic process with rites, stories, concepts, structures and traditions that should and can make her reflections and workings effective and efficient. Bearing in mind her past, growing in and from those specific traditions but working and preaching in the “ hic and nunc”; giving and making sense and orientation. Community that is speaking a commonly understood language, giving replies on questions carefully listened to and analysed properly first of all. Giving allowances to her structures to see that for each culture and time Christ Message’s relevancy is fully kept and put into practice.

Obviously this will particularly be difficult for Orthodox churches. For many understandable reason those communities have a more than strong tendency to keep everything by the old ways; therefore we speak of the Holy Tradition. It wasn’t always like that. Those communities have, till the 14 e century known the most drastic changes and adaptations in concepts, structures, rites, languages though quite the opposite might be noticed to day. This however bears a tremendous consequence: Christian language, also mine in this paper, has become a more and more closed system based on a world which was determined by the Jewish/Greek concepts (including the cosmos and creation concept) This concept is to day because of the scientific progress undermined and got the dust and value of a museum piece.

This multitude of new concepts and insights are very much popularised by the media, particularly television and by most of the TV programs and stations with a rapidly growing impact) Those vulgarisations, often manipulated but of seemingly high scientifically content will become a real problem as those concepts are often abused and manipulated too often by those who are agnostic or militant freethinker. Not to mention the strong or anti Christian faith attitude of so many politicians and media key persons in Europe. In Belgian a strong anticlerical attitude by the political parties and VRT (sometimes called Vrijzinnige Radio en Televise) – the public Flemish radio and television.

For the faithful members this situation is creating a growing schizophrenic situation- pushing those people to live in two, separate, different worlds. Not only is this situation dangerous, on top it drives out the most “ active” faithful as this situation isn’t prospering to a living faith. On top the churches (the leaders) too often and too openly show their refusal to face the world and his problems to day, to listen to the problems, questions and challenges and preach a Christian answer based on a Living Tradition. They don’t see the need for her language and replies, rites and structures to reformulate and find newer ways, all made possible and logical by this rich heritage and this fruitful soil we live in.

With a language and formulations, more of a secrete holy language (for most of the members) the link with the presently nourished concepts and lifestyles aren’t made thus the richness of the past (symbols and language) cannot bear fruits any more for the people of to day.

Do we have to dispose this tradition like garbage or old clothes? Are the old stories not to be told anymore and the old ways not to be used anymore? Do the Orthodox churches have to eliminate all those rites, poetic languages to make tabula rasa, similar to what the Latin Church did in the 60/70?

For sure, like in the past, we will have to grow and change in function of the pastoral needs to day. We need also a pedagogic instructional approach so the faithful will understand the true sense and meaning and come to an active reception. Like in the past this will happen in an organic way through local processes of adaptation and changes. Next to it there is the tradition of structural changes forced by the clergy. Avoiding extreme positions the richness of the symbols and poetic languages, which are the best expression of that what is greater than us and what is touching us, should be kept as much as possible. Helas, the meaning is mostly unknown and not properly explained in a pedagogic way. One must also bear in mind that the listener must be prepared and interested otherwise the words are wind and empty. There must also be an effect, not only in grasping the sense of symbols and words but also the transforming of the person in a Christian.

One cannot deny that Western Civilisation, a heritage of the Jewish/ Hellenistic world, is forgetting and outgrowing his basis. Obvious is also the growing conviction that religion and science are two separate attitudes, sometimes dealing with the same object but with different ends. This centuries-long struggle is moving very rapidly the last decade and, willingly or not, we will have to take this into consideration. The world has changed and the Byzantine dream is over. So we will have to learn to listen to the signs and language of to day. Asking the H.Spirit to understand the signs and find the right answers to the problems of to day. This will create quite a lot of tension between identity (respect for the traditions) and the relevancy task we got from Jesus himself. So we will have to put some practical questions to ourselves as a Christian community and try to understand why faith, particularly in the church as a community is fading away rapidly.

Some of those questions might be:
-Is the church not too much speaking with godly authority
- Has the packing not overtaken the role of the content and the presentation sclerosed already since nearly 6 centuries
-Is the overwhelming intention not to maintain primarily the institute?
- Are the gospel and the religious experience not of minor importance? Seems not obeying to the church authorities much more important and crucial than the experience of a communion in love and faith?

TRADITION / CHALLENGE?

The classical Orthodox approach of reality always was an open approach. Nothing is absolutely but God. All the rest is our broken response to his life-giving invitation, anticipation of our partnership with God and in God. Our response, translated into traditions, will and must remain a field of tension and of mutual spiritual enrichment through a reflection in words and deeds. Living out and from Gods Love and Life, within the living Tradition and with a loving care for the traditional rites, forms and languages we will have to keep the good elements, giving new live to them and a meaning for the realisation of the Kingdom of God today. Like good parents love abundantly their children but also are prepared to let them go and live their own lives we must develop a loving care for our own traditions, consider them as growing children. That means not to dispose of them easily and without urgent need but also not to force them into antique philosophical, social, political and theological concepts and languages. Re-contextualising has imposed itself and will continue to do so. We will have to make new paths whenever needed and necessary to come closer to the Lord and develop new languages if this makes the preaching of the Gospel also more effective and efficient.

Looking carefully for what is essential and meaningful and what can be our demanding reply and response to God’s invitation to His partnership with us and His creation. The guidance of the Spirit of God has been granted to us so that we can reveal Gods Kingdom in our deeds and words. Let us act accordingly.

Bibliography:

1.Karen Armstrong The Battle for God. A.Knopt, N.Y.

2.Lieven Boeve christian Tradition, present context and rupture ( Durch) tijdschrift voor theologie 4D 2000

3.Brown Jesus, God and Men- 4. Theologisch Geloofsverstaan van Schillebeeck 1983

5. A. Dulley Models of church doubleday 1987

6. Marc Steen. De Veerkreacht van de christelijke hoop Collationes 27 (1997)

7.Raymaeckers B Horizonten van Wetenschap Lessons for the XXI century Universitaire Pers