Christian Tradition & Emerging Conditions
Here’s an excerpt from Phillip Turner’s article on the “tradition of the church” as a source for Christian ethics in the Oxford Handbook of Theological Ethics. Turner tries to deal with the tension of emerging conditions and historical beliefs in the Christian tradition.
Within Christianity, the staying power of tradition depends upon maintaining a dynamic tension between loyalty to authoritative texts, deference to received tradition, thoughtful engagement with intellectual and social trends, and willingness to accept or reject novelty on the basis of compatibility with received tradition. However, successful negotiation of these shoals by all accounts of Christian tradition depends to some extent on the character of common life within the Church. Right discernment depends upon the presence within the Church and within the lives of individuals of those virtues and graces that make possible a grasp of tradition’s import, the peaceful resolution of conflict, and finally unity of both belief and practice. In the end, traditions staying power is linked to and rests upon the presence of virtue within the life of the community that it both defines and sustains.
He presents an interesting quasi-solution to the problem. In the end, he paints the task as more of an art than a science. And, he says that in the end it must be decided within a virtuous community.
I agree with him that it is complex, but I’m wary of going to quickly to the “community” answer. After all, how do I know what a “virtuous community” entails, and how does this ensure right answers on questions that have a huge bearing on people’s lives?
