“Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”
-Jaroslav Pelikan
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“Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”
Comments
Very interesting quote...I'll ponder it further...
Posted by: jess on Wednesday, August 30, 2006
So what do we do about it?
Posted by: Shannon on Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Before we can consider what to do, we must decide what it means.
Posted by: CJ Costello on Wednesday, August 30, 2006
My interpretation: tradition is only useful if it is living - if it can become a party in the conversation and can be argued with. It is living if it can be changed by future generations. It has to be understood and used properly. An improper use would be as a strict set of rules or interpretations that are immutable. Then it becomes traditionalism and those following it have dead faith.
Posted by: CJ Costello on Sunday, September 3, 2006