BOOK: Tradition and the Church by Msgr George Agius DD JCD

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Tradition and the Church
by Msgr George Agius DD, JCD
1928
reprinted with editing by
TAN Books in 2005 ----available online

The publishers elected to not only reprint this book, but to clarify the writings of this

Malta-born Americanized priest. The publishers looked around and found nothing as high

quality as this book, and they invested the time to bring the language uptodate in a clear

modern style of expression.

This book is a scholarly explanation and defense of the Tradition of the Catholic. There

are so many crystal clear statements, including citations of scripture, to explain what

Tradition is and why it is so important to Christianity in the Catholic Church.

This is “tradition” frontwards, backwards, and inside out, from every angle, with

sufficient explanation and detail so as to leave no doubt as to the authenticity and

authority of the Catholic Church, and it alone in all that goes by the name of Christian.

So, it is a book of apologetics as it explains at one point. It is a book of refuting the

major and fundamental errors of Protestantism. It is a book that explains that the Catholic

Church and it alone is the Church of Jesus Christ.

It explains the errors of “sola scriptura” “sola fide” and the supposed “sufficiency” of

Scripture. The author refers to Scripture as a “dead page” without the authority of the

Church.

And, it does all this WITH Scripture. The book is, thus, on a major level, a type of
Scripture study about the Church that Christ created and passed on, in authority, to St.

Peter and the Apostles.

It explains over and over, why we must believe what the Church teaches. And, it does this

in little over 300 pages. It doesn’t take all that long to do all these things, as it turns

out.

This book is for you if:
  1. You want to learn about Tradition and the Catholic Church
  2. You are thinking about becoming a Catholic – or if you think you should be
    leaving the Church
  3. You want to be able to explain and defend the Tradition of the Church
  4. You want to have a concise summary of these points on your shelf
The author states in one place that Pentecost is considered the “birthday” of the Church,

and he points out that creation was the moment of the “inception” of the Church – so all

of time is the history of the Catholic Church.

He points out that Protestantism is un-Biblical, illogical, inconsistent, and self-

contradictory. There is no gray area of discussion in this book.
 
(Selected) Table of Contents
**
Chap 1 General Notions of Tradition**
  1. Tradition means whatever is delivered, as well as the way and means by which the object
delivered came to us.
  1. Traditions, not being all of the same kind, have a different value and authority
  2. Traditions are either Divine or Ecclesiastical
  3. As a General Rule, Tradition must be considered in its strict sense
  4. All Traditions approved by the Church should be respected and believed
Chap 2 The Constitution of the Church
  1. An outline of the constitution of the Church throughout the centuries
  2. The constitution of the Church is substantially unalterable
  3. Before founding the Church, Christ proved his Divinity
  4. Authority is necessary in the Church
  5. Christ communicates his authority to the Apostles
  6. The Apostles assert their full authority
  7. Obedience by the Faithful was due to the Apostles
**Chapter 3. Establishment of Divine Tradition, that is, of an Apostolic Succession: An

ever-living and official body to govern the Church**
  1. Christ established a perpetual apostolic succession
  2. The apostles chose and instructed their successors in office
  3. Not all gifts with which Christ enriched the Apostles passed to their successors in
office
  1. The apostolic succession is not impaired by the absence of extraordinary charisms
Chapter 4. Necessity of an Apostolic Succession
  1. The last word of the church on religious unity
  2. Universality of faith cannot be attained through the scriptures only
  3. Universality of Faith cannot be effected by immediate revelation or scientific
demonstration, but only by the living authority of the Church
  1. without Church authority, there can be no unity of faith
  2. Universality and Unity of Faith have been lost by the oldest denominations of
Protestantism
  1. Universality and unity of faith do not exist in the Protestant denominations of today
  2. The successors of the apostles are charged with the infallible guardianship of the
deposit of faith are also its infallible teachers

Chapter 5. Testimony of the first centuries
  1. The apostolic churches were ruled by tradition as well as by scripture
  2. The Church has always been ruled by scripture and tradition
Chapter 6. Existence of Tradition
  1. There is no reason why revelation from its nature should necessarily be restricted to
scripture
  1. After the creation and fall of man, down to the coming of Christ, tradition always
existed
  1. The church always believed THEORETICALLY in Tradition.
  2. What the Church believed Theoretically she also professed always in her practice, that
is, truths and rites which are not contained in the scriptures

Chapter 7. Aberrations of Protestantism
  1. Protestantism is inconsistent
  2. The principle of protestantism – considered as the main foundation and reason for its
separation from the Catholic Church – is an open contradiction
  1. In the belief and practice of religion, our separated Brethren profess and perform many
things, which are not written in the scriptures. They know them only from tradition.

Chapter 8. Incorruption of Tradition
  1. The traditions fo the Church are not subject to corruption
  2. Tradition … is a supernatural and absolute certitude in every century of the Church
Chapter 9. Means and ways by which tradition is safely transmitted

Chapter 10. the Father and Doctors of the Church
  1. The Fathers distinguish the scriptures from tradition as two different parts of
revelation
  1. The Fathers did not advocate the suffiency of the scriptures to the exclusion of
Tradition

Chapter 11. The intellect of the Church
  1. The authentic interpretation fo the Church on any scriptural texs is the supreme "rule
of intelligence" which must simply be followed

Chapter 12. Relation of Tradition to Scripture
  1. In relation to scripture, Tradition comes first chronologically
  2. Tradition, not the scriptures, was intended by the apostles to rule the Church of Christ
Chapter 13 Development of Tradition
  1. All Catholic revelation must be believed if not explicitly then at least implicitly
  2. Many truths held today as revealed were not always so. theymay have been even denied
without shipwreck of the faith
  1. The definitions of the Church on any revealed truth contain not only Some of the truth,
but the Truth pure and simple.

Chapter 14. Completeness of Revelation
  1. Catholic revelation must not be confounded with private revelation
  2. Catholic revelation has come to an end…
  3. Catholic Revelationi was completed by the Holy Ghost through the Apostles. No other is
to be expected.
  1. The Catholic Church has always considered revelation, both in doctrine and in practice
as closed forever
 
I have the book. Haven’t read it cover to cover yet, but I have read sections that came in handy for some of my theology classes. :o
 
The case for catholic tradition versus protestant sola scriptura is “made” over and over in the book.

There’s a lot of direct and indirect quotes in support of tradition. Agius did an outstanding job of flushing out the issues.

early heretics ALSO appealed to the scriptures to support their views. It’s only a supreme and infallible authority – the Church and its magisterium, established and ordained by Christ – which can resolve the issues of scripture versus scripture. /QED
 
I read this book for a reason, and I have some important work to do with it.

In the meantime, I opened the Bible to 1 Corinthians Chap 6, and guess what it is saying there? … it’s Paul appealing to them to believe him for who he is, an apostle. He’s teaching them that divine revelation is coming to them …THROUGH HIM.

This is not “sola scriptura” folks, this is sacred tradition.

This, incidentally, is how I can read some verses in a whole new light. I wouldn’t have given those verses much attention, except now, after reading this book, I can see them for what they really are, a demonstration of apostolic teaching and what it really means.

The Catholic Church is THE church of sacred tradition and apostolic succession.

There’s the snapshot of it, right there in 1 Co 6.
 
Whoops, my scripture citation should have said 2 Co Chap 6, not 1 Co Chap 6. (up too late last night)

read 2 Co 6: 1 -11. Seems like it is not relevant, but it seems so, to me. “We are treated as impostors and yet are true” – Paul is a true Apostle of the Gospel. His preaching to them is a source of Divine Revelation – it is “true.” The New Testament hasn’t been written yet, he is no advocate of “sola scriptura” because it doesn’t exist yet, as he is writing to them.

Commentary of the Ignatius Study Bible:

“Christ filfills this mission [of salvation to the Gentiles] through the apostolic ministry of his servants, like Paul (Acts 13:47).”

Apostles are people who have been “sent” by God. They are messengers of Divine Revelation.

And, Acts 13:47: For so the LORD has commanded us, saying, “I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.”

Scripture wasn’t written yet. PEOPLE were the “light” for the nations. The Church was the source of Divine Revelation, not just by accident of history (when the NT may have been written) but by prophecy.
 
Crumpy said:
Tradition and the Church
by Msgr George Agius DD, JCD
1928
reprinted with editing by
TAN Books in 2005 ----available online

The publishers elected to not only reprint this book, but to clarify the writings of this

Malta-born Americanized priest. The publishers looked around and found nothing as high

quality as this book, and they invested the time to bring the language uptodate in a clear

modern style of expression.

This book is a scholarly explanation and defense of the Tradition of the Catholic. There

are so many crystal clear statements, including citations of scripture, to explain what

Tradition is and why it is so important to Christianity in the Catholic Church.

This is “tradition” frontwards, backwards, and inside out, from every angle, with

sufficient explanation and detail so as to leave no doubt as to the authenticity and

authority of the Catholic Church, and it alone in all that goes by the name of Christian.

So, it is a book of apologetics as it explains at one point. It is a book of refuting the

major and fundamental errors of Protestantism. It is a book that explains that the Catholic

Church and it alone is the Church of Jesus Christ.

It explains the errors of “sola scriptura” “sola fide” and the supposed “sufficiency” of

Scripture. The author refers to Scripture as a “dead page” without the authority of the

Church.

And, it does all this WITH Scripture. The book is, thus, on a major level, a type of
Scripture study about the Church that Christ created and passed on, in authority, to St.

Peter and the Apostles.

It explains over and over, why we must believe what the Church teaches. And, it does this

in little over 300 pages. It doesn’t take all that long to do all these things, as it turns

out.

This book is for you if:
  1. You want to learn about Tradition and the Catholic Church
  2. You are thinking about becoming a Catholic – or if you think you should be
    leaving the Church
  3. You want to be able to explain and defend the Tradition of the Church
  4. You want to have a concise summary of these points on your shelf
The author states in one place that Pentecost is considered the “birthday” of the Church,

and he points out that creation was the moment of the “inception” of the Church – so all

of time is the history of the Catholic Church.

He points out that Protestantism is un-Biblical, illogical, inconsistent, and self-

contradictory. There is no gray area of discussion in this book.
Click to expand...
How does this book compare and contrast with Tradition and Traditions by Yves Congar? Or his Tradition in the Life of the Church by Ignatius Press.
 
Fr_of_Jazz said:
How does this book compare and contrast with Tradition and Traditions by Yves Congar? Or his Tradition in the Life of the Church by Ignatius Press.
Click to expand...
I don’t know. Any help out there?

I started this thread to talk about a book that I thought totally hit the mark, at explaining Sacred Tradition. I’ve seen articles on this subject, but this is a book for the general reader that goes a little bit deeper than an article does.
 
Crumpy said:
I don’t know. Any help out there?

I started this thread to talk about a book that I thought totally hit the mark, at explaining Sacred Tradition. I’ve seen articles on this subject, but this is a book for the general reader that goes a little bit deeper than an article does.
Click to expand...
Msgr’s work sounds fine too, but Tradition and Traditions is a MAJOR work on the subject. It’s really outstanding. But nothing is perfect.
 
Fr_of_Jazz said:
How does this book compare and contrast with Tradition and Traditions by Yves Congar? Or his Tradition in the Life of the Church by Ignatius Press.
Click to expand...
Well, I can tell you two things, from searching at Amazon.
  1. congar is a theologian. I have trouble reading theology.
  2. His book Tradition and Traditions in paperback sells used for $499.
I’m not wealthy enough to pop for that one. Best of luck.

I also saw one by congar, jeff cavins, and patrick madrid. that one was over $100.

Agius’ book, around $20, is about my “speed.”
 
Crumpy said:
Well, I can tell you two things, from searching at Amazon.
  1. congar is a theologian. I have trouble reading theology.
  2. His book Tradition and Traditions in paperback sells used for $499.
I’m not wealthy enough to pop for that one. Best of luck.

I also saw one by congar, jeff cavins, and patrick madrid. that one was over $100.

Agius’ book, around $20, is about my “speed.”
Click to expand...
Congar’s work The Meaning of Tradition is a more popular summary of his thought on tradition. It goes for $10. I’d definitely buy it.
amazon.com/Meaning-Tradition-Yves-Congar/dp/158617021X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312592972&sr=1-2
 
I know I’m resurrecting an older post here. But just wanted to recommend that a person stay away from Congar all together. Agius is a much safer source. Also I have knowledge that Franzelin’s work on Tradition is currently being translated from Latin into English. That is going to be awesome since even the modernists seem to feel the need to quote him. He is probably an indispensable source for the theologian. That and knowing Latin (for the theologian that is).

Actually it is probably safest to stay away from anyone promoting the novelty of Primera Scriptura.
 
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