If there's a glaring fault in tradition, it's in the belief that tradition is a "finished product." More precisely, that everything that needed to be learned and said has been learned and said. Nothing new needs to be added. All the individual has to do is learn the tradition and obey it.
This external attitude toward tradition, especially in Christianity, lies in the conceptualization of truth as an eternal criterion -- truth as a mooring anchor; fixed and static; immovable as it holds everything in place.
The problem with this approach to tradition is it enforces an artificial stasis onto God and Creation, which are inherently dynamic. In this sense, Christians have chosen fixation over creativity. Choosing a condition without positive movement or change leads to a variety of difficulties.
To begin with, a tradition that has stopped moving forward can be easily studied and dissected. Inertia and inactivity on the part of traditionalists invites activity and energy from those who seek to destroy tradition. A fixed, immobile, stubborn tradition is easy prey for opportunistic predators who have all the time in the world to analyze its victim, discover its weak points, and gnaw away at them.
The only course available to tradition then is reaction to action. It raises its defenses and attempts to shield truth from the attacks. The reactions do little more than encourage further action on the part of the predators, who turn their attention to devising new strategies and tactics to breach the defenses once and for all.
Satan has an easy time with a fixed and static tradition. Since there is no new "material" forthcoming, he can content himself with learning the old material inside-out until he knows it off-by-heart. If there is one thing traditionalists must not delude themselves about, it is this -- no being in this world understands or will ever understand a fixed, static conceptualization of tradition better than the Prince of Lies.
Those who abide by the fixed and static conceptualization of tradition do so primarily because of the belief in truth as an eternal criterion. This conceptualization is incomplete rather than blatantly wrong. The criterion of truth is eternal, but it is not fixed, static, and external, but dynamic.
The Prince of Lies knows this, which is why he uses "progress" to attack tradition. The progress he employs is directly opposed to God and Creation; thus, it proclaims to draw on the tradition to further its cause, but instead actively works against it. Thus, the progress Satan demands and institutes is destructive rather than creative.
Those who defend tradition see the destruction for what it is and retreat further behind their defenses. However, by doing so, they also retreat from the possibility of true creativity -- from the potential and long overdue continuation of tradition via creativity.
Hence, the Prince of Lies is able to accomplish two objectives at once -- keep tradition fixed and static where it remains an easy target to faux and destructive "progress", and turn traditionalists away from the potential of true creativity, through which tradition could continue to evolve by becoming what it has always been and what is was always meant to be -- a dynamic unfolding in time.
As stated above, a fixed and static tradition offers no significant challenge to the Prince of Lies and his legions. They have been studying it, analyzing it, and attacking it for centuries. To them, the war against the fixed and static tradition is little more than a war of attrition. They have the upper hand. They know it's only a matter of time.
But if they had to deal with a vigorous, energetic tradition that embraced dynamism and creativity because it embraced the obvious truth that the Holy Spirit is dynamic, not static; if they were faced with Christians who understood that God, Creation, Christianity, and man are not "finished products" -- well, I daresay they would find themselves on the back foot, scattered and confused in territory they could have never imagined, let alone studied and learned.
This external attitude toward tradition, especially in Christianity, lies in the conceptualization of truth as an eternal criterion -- truth as a mooring anchor; fixed and static; immovable as it holds everything in place.
The problem with this approach to tradition is it enforces an artificial stasis onto God and Creation, which are inherently dynamic. In this sense, Christians have chosen fixation over creativity. Choosing a condition without positive movement or change leads to a variety of difficulties.
To begin with, a tradition that has stopped moving forward can be easily studied and dissected. Inertia and inactivity on the part of traditionalists invites activity and energy from those who seek to destroy tradition. A fixed, immobile, stubborn tradition is easy prey for opportunistic predators who have all the time in the world to analyze its victim, discover its weak points, and gnaw away at them.
The only course available to tradition then is reaction to action. It raises its defenses and attempts to shield truth from the attacks. The reactions do little more than encourage further action on the part of the predators, who turn their attention to devising new strategies and tactics to breach the defenses once and for all.
Satan has an easy time with a fixed and static tradition. Since there is no new "material" forthcoming, he can content himself with learning the old material inside-out until he knows it off-by-heart. If there is one thing traditionalists must not delude themselves about, it is this -- no being in this world understands or will ever understand a fixed, static conceptualization of tradition better than the Prince of Lies.
Those who abide by the fixed and static conceptualization of tradition do so primarily because of the belief in truth as an eternal criterion. This conceptualization is incomplete rather than blatantly wrong. The criterion of truth is eternal, but it is not fixed, static, and external, but dynamic.
The Prince of Lies knows this, which is why he uses "progress" to attack tradition. The progress he employs is directly opposed to God and Creation; thus, it proclaims to draw on the tradition to further its cause, but instead actively works against it. Thus, the progress Satan demands and institutes is destructive rather than creative.
Those who defend tradition see the destruction for what it is and retreat further behind their defenses. However, by doing so, they also retreat from the possibility of true creativity -- from the potential and long overdue continuation of tradition via creativity.
Hence, the Prince of Lies is able to accomplish two objectives at once -- keep tradition fixed and static where it remains an easy target to faux and destructive "progress", and turn traditionalists away from the potential of true creativity, through which tradition could continue to evolve by becoming what it has always been and what is was always meant to be -- a dynamic unfolding in time.
As stated above, a fixed and static tradition offers no significant challenge to the Prince of Lies and his legions. They have been studying it, analyzing it, and attacking it for centuries. To them, the war against the fixed and static tradition is little more than a war of attrition. They have the upper hand. They know it's only a matter of time.
But if they had to deal with a vigorous, energetic tradition that embraced dynamism and creativity because it embraced the obvious truth that the Holy Spirit is dynamic, not static; if they were faced with Christians who understood that God, Creation, Christianity, and man are not "finished products" -- well, I daresay they would find themselves on the back foot, scattered and confused in territory they could have never imagined, let alone studied and learned.
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