The place of tradition

<idle musing>
Yesterday, I was pretty hard on tradition. Does that mean I believe we should throw out tradition? In the immortal words of Paul: μὴ γένοιτο! May it never be!

What, then, is the role of tradition? Clark Pinnock asked that question many years ago in an issue of Themelios. He asked how we could use tradition without becoming Roman Catholic (or, I would add, Orthodox), or how we could jettison tradition without becoming radical liberals. His answer, which is what I have tried to do in my life, is to examine the traditions in light of scripture. Don't automatically jettison tradition, and don't automatically embrace it. Give it more weight than you would your own interpretations, but don't assume it is correct.

C.S. Lewis used to say that for every new book you read, you should read an old book (I have also seen it quoted as 2 old books). By that he meant we should read current theory, but we should also see what was said over 100 years ago. His explanation was that while the older scholarship wasn't free from error, it was usually free from the current errors! I try to adhere to that. If you look at my (poorly updated) list of books I'm reading, you will see that I am reading things from authors ranging from the Apostolic Fathers all the way up to today. Of course, if we include non-Christian stuff, from the dawn of writing all the way up to today :)

What do you think? What role do you allow tradition to play in your theology?
</idle musing>