Theology Links

Sacred Tradition

Tradition is important to every person and every group of people. It is part of our very identity. It represents our education, our culture, everything that has been handed on to us by the previous generation. Tradition is—literally—what is handed on. The term comes from the Latin word tradere, “to hand on”. Not all traditions are important. Some are frivolous or even harmful (see Mark 7:8 and Col. 2:8 on traditions that are merely “of men”). But some are very important indeed.

For Christians, the faith that has been handed on to us from Christ and the apostles is of unparalleled importance. In Catholic circles, this passing down of the faith is referred to as “Sacred Tradition” or “Apostolic Tradition” (with a capital “T” to distinguish it from other, lesser, “lower-case” traditions, including those merely “of men”).

At first the apostles handed on the faith orally—through their preaching—but with time some of them and their associates wrote the documents that form the New Testament, which together with the Old Testament comprise Sacred Scripture. Since Scripture has been handed down to us from the apostles, it can be seen as the written part of Sacred Tradition.

Whether or not an item of Tradition was written down in Scripture, it was still important and binding for believers. A number of places in the New Testament exhort the reader to maintain Sacred Tradition (e.g., 1 Cor. 11:2; 2 Thess. 3:6), and in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, St. Paul bluntly tells his readers to “stand firm and hold to the Traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.” So whether Christian Tradition was received orally or in writing, it was authoritative.

Another noteworthy passage is 2 Timothy 2:2, in which the apostle instructs his protégé, “what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Bearing in mind that this letter is Paul’s swan song, written just before he died (2 Tim. 4:6–8), Paul is exhorting the transmission of Sacred Tradition

across generations of Christian leaders—from his generation to Timothy’s generation, to the ones that will follow.

It was through the Church Fathers that this transmission would be accomplished.

The Fathers of the Church

Certain individuals in the early Christian centuries are referred to as Church Fathers or “the Fathers of the Church.” The origin of this metaphor is found in the New Testament, which depicts the apostles as the fathers both of individual converts and as the fathers of particular churches.

Since the apostles spiritually provided for, taught, and disciplined those under their care, it was natural to apply the metaphor of fatherhood to them (though of course this has its limits and must not be confused with the unique Fatherhood of God; see Matt. 23:9). After the time of the apostles, others also spiritually provided for, taught, and disciplined the Christian community, and it was natural to apply the metaphor of fatherhood to them as well. This was the case especially with bishops, who were regarded as the spiritual fathers of the communities that they served.

In time, the concept came to be applied in a general way to those who shaped the faith and practice of the Church in its earliest centuries. They became “Fathers” not only for their own age but for all ages that would follow.

Some of these—the ones who heard the preaching of the apostles themselves or lived very shortly after the time of the apostles—came to be called the “Apostolic Fathers” or “Sub-Apostolic Fathers.” Together with the Fathers of later ages, they were important witnesses to the Apostolic Tradition.

Though pronounced somewhat differently in Greek and Latin, the word for “father” in both languages is pater. A number of terms have been derived from this word, and on account of it we refer to the early Christian centuries as the patristic age (the age “of the fathers”) and to the study of the Fathers as patrology.