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Tradition Enquiry for Theological Studies, Part One: Method and Curriculum

‘Tradition Enquiry’ in theological studies locates the research a scholar is conducting within and with respect to theological traditions.  It helps researchers consider the state of an exegetical, theological, ethical, missiological, pastoral, etc. issue in a particular tradition of enquiry and in relation to other traditions. 

Too often, theological researchers address a contemporary issue with only a cursory engagement with Scripture—even ignoring Biblical studies (exegesis, Biblical theology)—and ignore the Church’s engagement with the issue for hundreds or thousands of years.  The result is that they turn to the social sciences, contextual theology, practical theology, or public theology without even a glance at theological traditions of the Church.

The proper theological training for tradition enquiry requires a person to be trained in Biblical exegesis, Biblical theology and ethics, historical theology and ethics, Church history, and the contemporary Church.  Tradition Enquiry will undertake such studies with an eye toward the development of various Christian traditions, including where such traditions stand today.  The researcher must understand purely academic studies on the relevant issue and not only study materials in his or her own tradition.  The point of tradition enquiry is to study the issue with an awareness of where a tradition’s point of view matters.  Some guidance towards this end is provided here.

A tradition can be described diachronically (through time, historically) and synchronically (at a particular time).  It can be defined narratively or systematically.  It can be described internally or with reference to other (external) traditions with which it overlaps and differs.

Following Alasdair MacIntyre, a tradition enquiry will:[1]

1.     Entail a prior commitment to a particular perspective

2.     Appreciate a narrative view of history

3.     Have and work from a particular understanding of authority with respect to a certain community, a certain collection of texts, and a certain tradition of interpretation

4.     Appreciate the role of trusted teachers to form others in the tradition

5.     Employ dialectic reasoning, working from faith to understanding or from convictions towards first principles

Tradition enquiry should, however, also explore other traditions in the same way, not just one’s own tradition.  The goal should be to see what implications and ramifications a given tradition’s presuppositions have.  This is not relativism.  If enquiry leads to views that are irreconcilable with the tradition one has held, then the researcher ought to be converted to a new tradition.  The difference this approach offers from Enlightenment enquiry is that it works from convictions rather than imagines that convictions can be made irrelevant and a pure reasoning can proceed.[2]

Method

I would suggest the following steps for tradition enquiry.

1. Identify your traditions.  The first step in tradition enquiry would be to identify the traditions of which one is a part.  For example, someone might be a Reformed Baptist who is Evangelical.  This person shares a tradition with Presbyterians in being Reformed and also, more broadly, Evangelical.  As an Evangelical, this person also shares things in common with others who are orthodox theologically and ethically in the Orthodox Church and in Roman Catholicism.

2. Understand your traditions generally.  In this, one needs to be well-enough educated about the traditions to be conversant with the history and views held.  This may involve reading denominational history and theology in a more academic way while also being aware of current news of the traditions.  Our example person, therefore, might study Reformed Church history and systematic theology while also being aware of how being Baptist and Reformed distinguishes himself from other Evangelicals, such as Wesleyans and Pentecostals.  He will be able to explain how being a Baptist is different from other Reformed denominations, such as Presbyterians.

3. Understand the topic being researched historically, with particular attention to one’s own traditions.

4. Understand the topic Biblically, including how Scripture has been interpreted regarding the issue under investigation.

5. Enquire into the issue both in terms of how one’s tradition has come to its convictions over against or in agreement with others and in terms of whether the research raises challenges to the traditional interpretation.

Such a description of tradition enquiry clarifies which books, journals, and resources will be needed for the study and what questions need to be answered.  It also explains how research needs to bring together the fields of study that have been separated in academia.  The orthodox, Evangelical researcher approaching his or her subject through tradition enquiry will engage with Biblical scholarship (both exegesis and Biblical theology/ethics), historical theology/ethics, and different ecclesial traditions.  Tradition enquiry will not skip over the Church’s history and replace it with a raw, contextual interpretation, and it will not minimize Biblical studies and replace this with a simplistic reference to some Biblical passages in translation.  Finally, the enquiry into one’s tradition will be analytical (understanding why convictions are held), critical (assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the tradition’s convictions), and relevant (fully engaged with the contemporary Church and relevant context).

Tradition enquiry will absorb certain interests and approaches of contextual, practical, and public theology.  At the same time, it will redirect these fields by addressing their concerns from the standpoint of a tradition.  It will also correct failures in such approaches to theology.  Contextual theology typically ignores theological traditions and undermines the authority of Scripture in favour of being amenable to a particular context (such as Asian Theology, African Theology, South American Theology/Liberation Theology, Post-colonial theology).  Practical theology may be more amenable to tradition enquiry, yet it prioritises a practice and its contemporary execution over the distinctives of different traditions.  It typically favours study from the social sciences over more in-depth Biblical, theological, and historical enquiry.  Public theology intentionally translates theological enquiry into non-traditional language and approaches theology through generic values rather than from authoritative texts, communities, and interpretations.

In seminary training, Biblical courses would be more theological and historical, theology course would be more Biblical and historical, and historical courses would be more Biblical and theological.  In all the courses, the contemporary practices and convictions of various traditions would be critically studied, and personal faith and ministerial practice would be discussed and applied.  Moreover, the classroom curriculum would be integrated with the worship and practices of the faith community, and this would be done with an intentionality in regard to the tradition.

[For Part Two, click here]


[1] Alasdair MacIntyre, Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry: Encyclopaedia, Genealogy, and Tradition (Notre Dame, IL: University of Notre Dame, 1990), pp. 59ff.

[2] See further Rollin G. Grams, Rival Versions of Theological Enquiry (Prague: International Baptist Theological Seminary, 2005).

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