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July 24, 2007

For all of the beneficial ecumenical developments over the past few decades, Tradition's role in the normative, orthodox expression of Christian doctrine continues to perch angels on pins. Perhaps one of the most delicate areas of the debate is the intersection of Tradition and the formation of the Canon of Scripture, especially the New Testament. If it is indeed the case, as many of our evangelical friends will affirm, that the pronouncements of Tradition are not binding as is Scripture, what do we do with the unfortunate happenstance of history that the Church Fathers (viz. St. Athanasius' Easter Letter of 367) and Councils (viz. Councils of Carthage) promulgated this same Scripture? Of course the answer to this query makes the conversation worth pursuing and affirms the importance of why we indulge in such nasty noeticism in the first place.

Ben C. Smith's ongoing "Canonical Lists" over at Thoughts on Antiquity adds much to the discussion and sheds greater light on just how fungible those Pauline Epistles were to many of the Church Fathers.

Posted by Seth Zirkle at July 24, 2007 02:15 PM

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