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Chapter Five
The Successors: The Defense of the Faith through Tradition
Continuing on into
the 4th Century, there is no deviation in the Church's understanding of the
contents of the Faith. St. Athanasius, the great hero of the Church's struggles
against Arianism, wrote (ca. A.D. 360), "Let us note that the very tradition,
teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the beginning, which the
Lord gave, was preached by the Apostles, and was preserved by the Fathers.
On this was the Church founded; and if anyone departs from this, he neither
is nor any longer ought to be called a Christian."1 It is important for us
to recognize that, at this point, the Church has now existed for three and
a half centuries. By this time, every precept of the Faith was not only being
consistently preached throughout the Church (at least prior to the ascent
of Arianism), but had been solidly codified in written documents authored
by the likes of Ignatius, Clement, and Irenaeus. Any claim to the teaching
of Christ had to pass through the patrimony of these Early Fathers; it had
to adhere to that which they received and passed on. It is not surprising
then that Athanasius focuses so much on the teachings of the earlier Fathers
in his arguments against the Arian heresy. The Apostolic tradition, loyally
handed down through earlier generations, clearly opposed the Arian conception
of the Trinity.
If doctrinal understanding could develop through time, it would have been
fruitless for Athanasius to repair to the earlier teachers of the Church,
for the Arians did not claim to oppose the Truth of Christ, but merely to
express the correct understanding of that Truth which had always been taught
in an imperfect way. As St. Basil writes in an epistle to the Italians and
Gauls (ca. A.D. 372): "And now the very vindication of orthodoxy is looked
upon . . . as an opportunity for attack [against those who vindicate orthodoxy]:
and men conceal their private ill-will and pretend that their hostility is
all for the sake of truth. . . . All the while unbelievers laugh; men of
weak faith are shaken; faith is uncertain; souls are drenched in ignorance,
because adulterators of the word imitate truth."2 That the Arians did not
attempt to oppose traditional Christian Truth as a whole, but merely to elaborate
upon it is also clear from St. Basil's Epistle to the Alexandrians (ca.
A.D. 373):
I have observed
the ingenuity of the devil's mode of warfare. When he saw that the Church
increased under the persecution of enemies and flourished all the more, he
changed his plan. He no longer carries on an open warfare, but lays secret
snares against us, hiding his hostility under the name which they bear, in
order that we may both suffer like our fathers, and, at the same time, seem
not to suffer for Christ's sake, because our persecutors too bear the name
of Christians.3
Just as the saints
of the first three centuries depended on the exact Apostolic conception of
doctrine to pass on the unified deposit of Faith, the saints of the 4th Century
used those exact formulations to preserve the deposit of Faith from any
innovation. Only in the perfect observance of the meaning and sense in which
the teachings of tradition were understood by their authors, could the Faith
be preserved, as St. Hilary of Poitiers argues (ca. A.D. 356), "This tearing
asunder of the faith has arisen from the defect of poor intelligence, which
twists what is read to conform to its opinion, instead of adjusting its opinion
to the meaning of what is read."4 St. Hilary does not deny the existence
of man's desire to understand the Truth in a way more accommodated to his
sensibilities or physical situation; he condemns it. He does not doubt that
certain people, under the guise of accommodating the current state of man's
consciousness, will seek to interpret the same Truths in varying ways, he
only anathematizes such an accommodation. He does not say that the mind of
a given man will not attempt to interpret what is read "to conform to its
opinion," but that such a mind is perverse and can only be healed by "adjusting
its opinion to the meaning of what is read."
Only in a continuity in the understanding and expression of the doctrines
of the Faith can the connection to the Truth of God be preserved, as opposed
to a mere unity in an ethereal Faith that can take on different signification
depending on factors like time or place, which St. Foebad of Agen declares
in his treatise Against the Arians (ca. A.D. 357): "The Three are
One. This we believe, this we hold, because this we have received from the
Prophets, this do the Gospels tell us, this the Apostles handed down, this
the martyrs confessed . . . In this we adhere to the faith even with our
faculties of mind - against which even if an angel of heaven pronounce, let
him be anathema."5
Many people, in our day, take a centrist approach to this matter. They claim
that on certain subjects, such as the nature of the Trinity, there can be
absolutely no deviation in the sense and meaning of the doctrines always
held in the Church since the beginning. In regard to other, less "crucial"
issues, however, they add, the traditional understanding can be elucidated
to present a fuller Truth, or at least a Truth more acceptable to the "modern
consciousness." As the previous citations have demonstrated, the early Fathers
have never given any room for such a distinction. In their judgment, if a
teaching carries even the "smell" of possessing an import different from
what they have always understood, then it is a deviation from the Apostolic
tradition and must be rejected even should "an angel of heaven" declare it.
Furthermore, in the judgment of the Early Fathers, this reverence for "tradition"
does not extend only to those "central truths" of the Faith, like the nature
of the Trinity, which Pope St. Clement had clearly taught in 80 A.D. by including
in the Apostolic heritage even the days and manners of certain ecclesiastical
functions. In keeping with the unchanging view of doctrine, St. Basil the
Great echoes this ruling of that famous Pope in his work The Holy Spirit
(ca A.D. 375):
Of the dogmas and
kerygmas preserved in the Church, some we possess from written teaching and
others we receive from the tradition of the Apostles, handed on to us in
mystery. . . . In respect to piety both are of the same force. No one will
contradict any of these, no one, at any rate, who is even moderately versed
in matters ecclesiastical. Indeed, were we to try to reject unwritten customs
as having no great authority, we would unwittingly injure the Gospel in its
vitals; or rather, we would reduce kerygma to a mere term. For instance,
. . . who taught us in writing to sign with the sign of the Cross . . . ?
What writing has taught us to turn to the East in prayer? . . . Where is
it written that we are to bless the baptismal water, the oil of anointing,
and even the one who is being baptized? Is it not from silent and mystical
tradition? . . . [W]here is it written that we are to renounce Satan and
his angels [during the Baptismal process? Does this not come from that secret
and arcane teaching which our Fathers guarded in silence not curiously meddled
with . . . In the same way the Apostles and Fathers who, in the beginning,
prescribed the Church's rites, guarded in secrecy and silence the dignity
of the mysteries; for that which is blabbed at random and in the public ear
is no mystery at all. This is the reason for our handing on of unwritten
precepts and practices: that the knowledge of our dogmas may not be neglected
and held in contempt by the multitude through too great a familiarity.6
According to St.
Basil, the submission to any "unwritten" "tradition of the Apostles" is just
as integral to a person's Faith as the acceptance of the doctrine on the
Holy Trinity. Both have "the same force" and the former, the "unwritten"
traditions, cannot be deviated from without injuring the character of the
latter, the "Gospel in its vitals." The "sign of the Cross," the practice
of "turning East in prayer," and the "renunciation of Satan and his angels"
during Baptism are not adornments to the Faith; they are the very contents
of that Faith.7 Furthermore, the understanding of these "unwritten" contents
of the Faith, just as that of an article of Faith like the Trinity, is not,
in the ruling of St. Basil, the subject of adaptation for the purpose of
satisfying the sensibilities of a modernized human consciousness. The "unwritten"
traditions are to be submitted to as "secret and arcane teaching," no different
than the dignified "mysteries," which are accepted without question and,
if necessary, without full understanding. In fact, the knowledge of the
"unwritten" tradition, rather than being characterized in a way acceptable
to all people, is to be safeguarded from the "neglect" and "contempt" of
a "multitude" that would be unwilling to submit to "the meaning of what is
read" (St. Hilary). St. John Chrysostom (ca. A.D. 398) supports this, writing:
"'Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you have
been taught, whether by word or by our letter (2 Thessalonians 2:15).' From
this it is clear that they did not hand down everything by letter, but there
was much also that was not written. Like that which was written, the unwritten
too is worthy of belief. Is it tradition? Seek no further."8
That the prevailing mindset and reason of man can have no place in the sense
in which doctrine is to be presented and understood is further testified
to by St. Gregory of Nyssa (ca. A.D. 380): "Let no one interrupt me and say
that what we confess should be confirmed by constructive reasoning. It suffices
for the proof of our statement that we have a tradition coming down to us
from the Fathers, an inheritance as it were, by succession from the Apostles
through the saints who came after them."9 This teaching is also found in
the writings of St. John Chrysostom (ca. A.D. 391) who explicates the passage
from St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans Ch. 1 Vs. 5 thus: "Through whom we
have received grace and Apostleship for obedience unto faith. . . . He does
not say, for questioning and reasoning, but for obedience. . . . It was for
this reason that the Apostles were sent: to tell what they had heard, not
to add to it anything of their own; and that we, for our part, should believe."10
That a man may harbor a desire to more fully interpret the doctrines of the
Faith in the context of his ever expanding contemplations of freedom, property,
liberality, science, and the like, is not his proper domain and can only
lead him astray. The Early Fathers do not permit him to inspect his beliefs
through the lens of "constructive reasoning." They do not permit him to justify
his Faith through "questioning and reasoning." The proof of their faith and
the rule for their belief can only reside in "the tradition coming down from
the Fathers" as "an inheritance" to which they are allowed only the sentiment
of "obedience" and never feelings of a greater or deeper fulfillment through
a different sense of what has been revealed to
them.
Footnotes:
1 St. Athanasius 1st Epistle to Serapion of Thmuis (ca. A.D. 360)
28
2 St. Basil the Great Epistle to the Italians and Gauls (ca. A.D.
372) 92.2-3
3 St. Basil the Great Epistle to the Alexandrians (ca. A.D. 373)
139
4 St. Hilary of Poitiers The Trinity (ca. A.D. 356) 7.4
5 St. Foebad of Agen Against the Arians (ca. A.D. 357) 22
6 St. Basil the Great The Holy Spirit (ca. A.D. 375) 27.66
7 It should be noted here that the Novus Ordo Rite has eliminated
the number of Signs of the Cross, compared to the Tridentine Mass, from
approximately 40 to about 15. Churches are no longer constructed to be oriented
towards the Liturgical East, nor does Church, since the introduction of the
Novus Ordo Rite, anymore prescribe the Mass to be offered facing the Liturgical
East. Except in very rare cases, the Pope "celebrates" Mass facing the people,
and away from the Liturgical East.
8 St. John Chrysostom Homily on the Second Epistle to the
Thessalonians (ca. A.D. 398) 4.2
9 St. Gregory of Nyssa Against Eunomius (ca. A.D. 380) 3
10 St. John Chrysostom Homily on the Epistle to the Romans (ca.
A.D. 391) 1.3
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