Evangelical Christians have always tended to frown upon Traditionalism. Of course, this tendency decreases somewhat as one grows older and yesterday’s traditions become today’s cherished memories. Nevertheless, Tradition’ has usually been a no-no for Evangelicals. Why allow the past to constrain the present, or inhibit the future?
However, maybe Traditionalism isn’t such a bad thing after all. You might come to this conclusion when you realise that Traditionalism is selective, and must be so, and that the selection operates on the principle of self-preservation.
The Bicentennial celebrations are a perfect illustration. Amidst the superfluity of patriotic enthusiasm spewing forth from every piece of dry ground and not-so-dry harbour on Australia Day, what silently intruded a note of protest into the celebrations? That red, yellow and black flag. It reminded us that as the whites celebrate, there are not too many black smiles joining the festivities. We are selective about which piece of history we rejoice over.
What is the principle upon which we make our choice? Self-preservation. If whites gave too much emphasis to the darker side of settlement then we might reach some conclusions that are a little uncomfortable to live with. If the Aboriginal people joined in our nationalistic fervour, would they not be condoning their own decline?
The same is true of churches. To follow a particular tradition, selectivity is needed. And this selection is usually done for self-preservation. By foisting selected traditions upon one’s fellows, a particular set of standards and ideals can be entrenched throughout the organisation.
And this is where Traditionalism is an excellent thing for Evangelicals to get into. As others attempt to burden us with their particular traditions what should we do? Thumb our noses and eschew tradition altogether? This hardly seems the way forward—we are alienated enough already.
No, we simply need to be selective, like all good Traditionalists. And there is a veritable smorgasboard from which to choose. Will we be in the liberal tradition or the conservative? Will we follow traditions uniformly throughout the country, or those of our local group? Will we be heirs of Mediaeval Catholicism (albeit revived through the modern mystics) or heirs of the Reformers? Will we follow slavishly the traditions resulting from the 16th Century Reformation or follow their tradition of constant reformation? Will we look primarily to our denomination or to the Evangelical movement as a whole? While we pursue uniformity or flexibility?
Of course, for the true Evangelical some of these options are automatically excluded. In selecting our traditions we must constantly keep in mind the words of Jesus: Will we follow the traditions of men or the commandments of God?
Our traditions must be God-centred— that is, they must be consistent with the gospel that God has revealed. For the Evangelical, self-preservation equals gospel-preservation. If we must select our traditions, then let us choose those which preserve and advance the gospel, which is always in danger of being set aside by the traditions of mere men.
