The Truth in Tradition. A Free Church Symposium

Written by Rupert E. Davies (ed.) Reviewed By Roy Kearsley

Representatives of Baptist, Methodist and United Reformed churches offer distinctive slants on the place of tradition in Christian life and doctrine today. The meaning of tradition is not completely consistent, variously denoting common Christian core beliefs, denominational distinctives and some Roman Catholic claims for a continuing apostolic tradition.

In some respects there is a history common to the three denominations represented. That history includes: the asserting of denominational identity; the viewing of ancient tradition with suspicion before coming full circle, through ecumenical processes, to a more sympathetic stance; the capitulation to changes produced by modern, critical, academic theology; the formulating of official statements on the place of tradition in church doctrine and practice.

Each of the essays, in a concise way not easily available otherwise, puts us wise to specific denominational routes through shared stages. The Baptist theologian, Keith W. Clements, writes shrewdly on the slippery relationship of any church to tradition, and offers some judicious conclusions: tradition is not some amiable middle path between an authoritative Bible and an authoritative church; traditions of the past were sometimes the ‘second-bests’ of their day; tradition belongs in the context of mission and can be vulnerable to being overturned by that very canon (William Carey did this when he made the ‘Great Commission’ not a commission to the apostles but to the whole church). Clements still betrays a typically questioning Baptist posture towards tradition.

Rupert E. Davies provides a valuable background to Wesley and tradition in Methodism. Davies concludes that ecumenical dialogue has brought Methodism back to the valuing of other church traditions. It is not clear, however, whether this is really the case, or whether we are witnessing academic theology’s corporate chanting of pleasure in the ill-health of dogma. In the second half of the essay, Davies looks more like a confident old-fashioned liberal than a new admirer of tradition. He criticizes those who in the past have upheld their tradition as the only one, but seems equally dogmatic and dismissive about the more conservative approaches to Christian doctrine. He is confident enough to know that such writings as the Didache and Shepherd deserve the same rank as James and 2 Peter, even though at least 1,600 years of tradition have denied it to them!

Speaking for what is described, in the broadest of terms, as the ‘Reformed’ churches, David M. Thompson traces a typically ‘Protestant’ caution about tradition. He holds that a Protestant theology views doctrinal tradition as rooted in the continuing illumination of the Holy Spirit in the churches and in the theological education of the ministry. He is particularly valuable in analysing the attitude of Calvin, and his heirs, to tradition.

The syllabi of theological courses often include attention to creeds, confessions and ‘tradition’ in its various guises. This clearly written and non-technical collection offers considerable help in the field.


Roy Kearsley

Glasgow Bible College