Tradition, Scripture, and Interpretation: A Sourcebook of the Ancient Church

by D.H. Williams

Tradition, Scripture, and Interpretation supplements a valuable series that helps modern church leaders return to the wisdom and insight of the early church fathers in order to apply their ancient understandings of Christian belief and practice to ministry in the twenty-first century.

This sourcebook gathers key writings from the first through sixth centuries on various topics of concern to the church yesterday and today. The writings are arranged thematically, and within each theme, chronologically, revealing how the Christian tradition on a given topic developed over time. The anthology begins with a chapter examining the close relationship between Scripture and tradition in the minds of early church leaders.

Genres: Church History, Theology

190 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2006

Reviews

[Jacob Aitken]

Anticipates many Postmodern ideas by urging, among other things, that Scripture be read in community and, to quote Alasdair MacIntyre, "traditioned reason." Of course, the Fathers would deny that all communities are equal! But no less would the Fathers urge an individualist "me and my bible" reading. Readings are framed by community (and in our discussion, the ultimate community--the Church) and "traditioned reason," which for the Church is the heritage of interpretation passed down by the Fathers.

On reading the Bible: Christ is the "inner logic" of the Bible (34). This helps modernist evangelicals (which includes Conservative calvinists!) make sense of Patristic and Medieval allegory. The Fathers (and St Paul, no less--cf 1 Corinthians 10 and Galatians 4) use allegory in almost a haphazard way. On a surface level reading, there seems no breaks on the interpretation. But most curiously, the more allegorical they were (possible exception of Origen), the more orthodox their reading. That is because "Christ" ties their reading together, and if your reading is Christocentric, even if it is wildly allegorical, it will be an orthodox reading.

The book is extremely useful. It gives a compendium of nice passages from the Fathers. And these passages are not artificial snippets (the bane of all compendiums). It begins with what the St Paul says about receiving the tradition and traces it through the Church fathers.

This book, while written by an evangelical and for evangelicals, poses a challenge to Evangelicals. Williams makes very clear that whatever the Fathers (and St Paul) meant by Tradition, they did not mean it was synonymous with Scripture and that once having a completed canon, it would no longer be necessary. In fact, most of the passages on Tradition in this book refute that very notion.

I would be interested in seeing how Williams dealt with the fact that these guys he praises also believed in Apostolic Succession.

[Zach Waldis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good information but pretty boring.