What goes into Sacred Tradition

[Montie_Claunch]

Guys I was just wondering. I am not arguing agianst it or anything. How did the Church decide what goes into Sacred Tradition? I know that there were various heretical sects from the beggining like the Circumsisers demanding that one must be circumciesed. So how did the church know what was Sacred Tradition and What wasn’t? How did they know what to look for? When did the church make an offical declaration (if ever) of what goes into ST and what wasn’t? Thanks and God bless.

 

[Alfie]

Montie Claunch:

Guys I was just wondering. I am not arguing agianst it or anything. How did the Church decide what goes into Sacred Tradition? I know that there were various heretical sects from the beggining like the Circumsisers demanding that one must be circumciesed. So how did the church know what was Sacred Tradition and What wasn’t? How did they know what to look for? When did the church make an offical declaration (if ever) of what goes into ST and what wasn’t? Thanks and God bless.

Someone please explain to me how the Catholic church can verify any particular tradition…period? It can’t document any specific doctrine. Please list the doctrines that make up this supposed oral tradition.

 

[Veritas41]

That’s a good question. It’s not a matter of what “goes into” Tradition, but what was there from the beginning.

"The Church’s Magisterium exercises the authority it holds from Christ to the fullest extent when it defines dogmas, that is, when it proposes truths contained in divine Revelation." (CCC 88)
“And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which as been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of Truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound, and spread it abroad by their preaching.”

Tradition is divine revelation handed down by Christ, entrusted to the apostles and passed on to their successors by the Holy Spirit through the Magisterium of the Church. "The apostles entrusted the “Sacred Deposit” of the faith, contained in Sacred Scripture and Tradition, to the whole of the Church. “By adhering to [this heritage] the entire holy people, united to its pastors, remains always faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and prayers. So, in maintaining, practicing and professing the faith that has been handed on, there should be a remarkable harmony between the bishops and the faithful.” (CCC 84)

In the early Church, while the apostles were still alive, it would be easy to verify if a teaching were apostolic or not. Those who received apostolic teaching in turn would pass it on to others (1 Cor. 23, 1 Tim 6:20, 2 Tim. 1:-2). Something taught in all the churches and traceable to the apostles would be apostolic Tradition. In the early centuries of the Church, major heresies usually required councils to clearly define a particular teaching, not verify whether it was apostolic or not, and in that show the error of the particular heresy. Ecumenical councils had to be approved by the pope before they became binding on the Church, because only with the approval of the pope would they be considered infallible. It’s pretty remarkable at how quickly people were in the early Church were to pick up on errors, which indicates Tradition was widely known and recognized.

 

[vern_humphrey]

Alfie:

Someone please explain to me how the Catholic church can verify any particular tradition…period? It can’t document any specific doctrine. Please list the doctrines that make up this supposed oral tradition.

The tradition is documented. Essentially, tradition is what was handed down by word of mouth, and documented after the fact, by later generations. For example, the form of the Mass is traditional – and the earliest description we have of it is the First Apology of Justin (about 150 AD.)

Opposition to abortion is traditional (as well as scriptural.) We have the Didache, an early Christian teaching document that denounces abortion.

 

[dcdurel]

Apostolic Tradition is simply the Gospel that the apostles proclaimed and that their successors handed down by teaching, preaching and their way of life. Catechisms are simply the presentation of that living Apostolic Tradition. Thus, catechisms present the Gospel the apostles taught and preached. The Gospel the apostles handed down is the Catholic faith. That is why the new Catechism of the Catholic Church says we are supposed to hand on the Gospel by professing the Catholic faith.