Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3.16-17).’ 193The Orthodox Church, likewise, claims to have Scripture as its foundation forfaith and practice, but, with the Catholic Church, claims also that the Church,through ‘tradition,’ has faithfully interpreted the Scriptures throughout itshistory. Timothy (Kallistos) Ware writes:‘The Christian Church is a Scriptural Church: Orthodoxy believes this just asfirmly, if not more firmly, than Protestantism. The Bible is the supremeexpression of God’s revelation to man, and Christians must always be“People of the Book.” But if Christians are People of the Book, the Bible isthe Book of the People; it must not be regarded as something set up overthe Church, but as something that lives and is understood within theChurch (that is why one should not separate Scripture and tradition).’ 194Most Protestants are uneasy about the concept of tradition being placedalongside the Scriptures, but even Protestantism finds it hard to do away withtradition. I know Protestants who would claim that they abide by theReformation principle of ‘sola scriptura‘ but are firmly rooted in a Calvinist orAnabaptist tradition and interpret the scriptures with the help of a body ofwritings holding their viewpoint almost exclusively. Equally, few liberalProtestants can escape a ‘tradition’ in their handling of Scripture and manyhave a demythologising tradition which treats the texts in a ‘non-realist’ way.How then can we tell which ‘tradition’ is acceptable? I suggest that if atradition is consistent with the plain meaning of the Creeds, and so upliftsChrist as Saviour, Lord and God, and coheres with a doctrine of the Trinity, itis acceptable. Protestants will say that the Catholic tradition teaches morethan the bare text of the Creeds and will find that hard to cope with, but atleast it can be held that none of their traditions undermine the Creeds. That iswhy adherence to the classical Creeds is so important for Christian Unity.When a tradition parts company with the Creeds, then we must partcompany with that tradition.193Ed Flannery, Austin, OP, Vatican Collection Vol 1, Vatican Council II, The Conciliar andPost-Conciliar Documents, New Revised Edition 1992, (ninth printing) DominicanPublications, pp 757.194Ware, Timothy, The Orthodox Church, Penguin Books, 1967, p207.Page 206