The Problem of Relevance and Tradition
Sometimes the purpose behind a particular tradition gets lost in the details. That is, those who have been handing down a particular tradition have not been adequately taught why they do the things they do. Another possibility is that the tradition becomes laden with so many short-lived faddish practices that it begins to look absurd a generation down the road. Thus, what we are left with is simply a stale ritual from which even our parents cannot remember the reason it got started.
Perhaps the most important place to begin in communicating the significance of tradition is to start by saying tradition is a reference point for true relevance. Let me provide what I hope to be a helpful analogy.
Much has been said about the problem of global warming in recent years. While I don’t contend that it isn’t really happening, there are numerous scientists who are skeptical. But one of the potential objections we ought to consider in order to know whether global ocean levels and average temperatures are on the rise is whether we have something to compare them to. In other words, since the earth has been around for a very long period of time then in order to determine if what we are seeing is truly an erratic pattern of activity, current measurements must be compared to measurements over a longer period of time. The trouble is that much of the modern meteorological data that we now collect was not recorded in yesteryear, or if it was, it wasn’t kept very diligently until the past century or two. That being the case, in the big span of the world’s history it is difficult to discern how truly “out of the ordinary” average temperatures and ocean levels are today.
In a similar way, there is a great need for Christians to be immersed in a religious tradition that is bigger than their own contemporary slice of time, that includes the saints through all the ages, but even specifically within the histories of their own movements that have a legacy of faithfulness. They need to be situated within a broader tradition and strive for those common denominators from generation to generation that have kept the church rooted in the word, able to understand and minister effectively in each age. A reference point is necessary to determine relevant or captive we really are! The sad fact, however, is that so many have repudiated the one thing that could have aided them in their relevant pursuit.
David Fitch of Northern Seminary remarks, “In traditions, Christians become witnesses to a specific reality of Jesus Christ lived in their history, not advocates of an argument that has universal appeal. Historical traditions carry truth, prove it by living it and testing it out in people’s lives. Traditions can only rationalize the truth as they embody it. They have a depth that cannot be denied”(The Great Giveaway, p. 57). Further reflection on Fitch’s comments here perhaps lead us to what sort of presuppositions are underneath this modern pursuit of relevance and simultaneous rejection of tradition. It is the preconceived idea that what is newer must be better, and equally carry more cultural authority.
James Davison Hunter makes some related observations about avant garde art, when he says “it begins with the quest for novelty. This impulse is undeniably a driving force in the arts, entertainment, and the news media. The quest is based on the premise that the new will somehow be better than the old, a premise that fits well with America’s utilitarian demand for improvement” (Culture Wars, 230). In other words, the quest for novelty is not only common to secular ideology. Frankly, it is worldly.
I realize that there is much more that ought to be said about this subject in order to rightly assess it. Certainly there are issues pertaining to modernity and postmodernity that need to be explored to fully understand the nature of the struggle we are in. Yet just in a careful reflection on Scripture it seems that in trying so strenuously to forsake tradition we have forsaken our ability to maintain a relevance that does not entail having to reinvent the church every few years. Undoubtedly there is a place for change in the church. However the motivation for change and the ideal the church is trying to reform itself to must be birthed out of careful application of the Christian worldview. If the church capitulates more to the broader church culture’s plea for popularity then it will have much bigger problems than some temporary perception of irrelevance by a passing group of 25-year olds that no one has ever taken the time to disciple (or perhaps even share the Gospel with).
Salvaging Relevance
In the same way that there are deep concerns about the misuse of the term ‘tradition’, these also apply to the word ‘relevant’ itself. Properly understood, relevance is not a wrong desire. As Os Guinness has rightly noted, “Relevance is at the very heart of the gospel of Jesus and is the secret of the church’s power down through history…of course, Christians can make the gospel irrelevant by shrinking and distorting it one way or another.” (Prophetic Untimeliness, 13) What we need to realize is that the relevancy is in the message itself. The task of the Christian preacher is to understand the message fully, and be able to creatively introduce that message at the point of contact where people are hurting. His task is not to find out what is popular among unregenerate, confused men, clothe the Gospel in that same troubled, worldly garment, preach his message, and then feel that his task has been faithfully executed without the plausibility and weightiness of the message left entirely untainted.
Often times the proof-text for the modern pursuit of cultural relevance is 1 Corinthians 9:22b: “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” While there are fewer passages in Scripture that have been abused as much as this one, perhaps the best way to strive to interpret the apparent meaning of this text is to interpret it in balance. Even if it means all that most contemporary church leaders hope it means in terms of the flexibility it allows for their views on ecclesiology, they must hold this verse in tension with “in the world, but of the world,” “salt and light”, and “be ye separate.” Our exegesis is to be performed free from the idol of any single tradition or pursuit of relevance clutched in our hand that would take our eyes from the text itself.
Toward a Resolution to the Matter
Though one’s critique of a particular idea is not diminished by his inability to offer a counter-proposal, out of love for the church and desire for her purity the following three suggestions are offered to help Christians and church leaders to better navigate through the issues of relevance, tradition, and worldliness.
First, as one professor told me years ago, Christians need to distinguish between capital-T tradition and lowercase-t tradition. The latter is the one often rejected because it consists of the stigmas of the last generation that are often detestable to those living today, and rightly so in many cases. Some of the things my parents and grandparents’ generations said and did were not faithful to Scripture. Many of their ideas were influenced by modernity in ways that are appalling. Yet at the same time our children will likely say similar comments concerning us. Our goal is to be in submission to Scripture, and secondly to the broader Capital-T tradition that consists of the faithful saints through all the ages who stood for orthodoxy long before we knew how to spell the word. While criticism of earlier generations might indeed be valid, honor is to be rendered to our parents, the saints, and the emperor, as Scripture commands. Above all it is helpful to remember how the Yale church historian Jaroslav Pelikan summarized this matter when he said, “Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. Tradition is the living faith of the dead.”
Second, being wary of embracing pop culture artifacts and forms is crucial for maintaining true relevance. Kenneth Myers has done much to show that popular culture is based on and rooted in consumerism, image-driven media, and the myth that newer is better. Church leaders need to remember that the same films, advertisements, and music from five, ten, and 20 years ago that they chuckle at condescendingly will be the same fate they experience if they, in the same way as their parents, surrender to the pressure of using whatever is popular at the moment “to reach people” (i.e. add a few more consumers to the pews). It doesn’t take most of us long to recount instances of singing a tune that was began by being aired on their favorite contemporary Christian music station. Eventually the song lost its appeal, and newer songs took its place. Now, barely a year or two later after singing the song in church services, people feel increasingly awkward by singing a song that became “played out” on the radio long ago.
Instead of this approach, the church needs to muster some intellectual fortitude to mine its history and God-given gifts to rediscover traditional forms with the fewest stigmas attached, customs that have broader appeal to our shared humanity, and that conform to the ideals and patterns of Scripture, instead of ones that appeal to a small marketing demographic. One of the greatest gifts a child can be given is a relevance or a significance that transcends his own tastes, preferences, and styles.
Third, Christians need to possess a humility and caution lest they be victims of the chronological snobbery that C.S. Lewis warned about over 50 years ago. We must not fall prey to thinking that we’re going to get every issue right in a way that previous generations did not. This is an uphill task that requires due diligence, attention to old books over new (advice from Lewis), and constantly searching the Scriptures for wisdom. The pursuit of wisdom is not an optional accessory to Christian living. It is a crucial call to virtue sounding out out in the streets according to Proverbs. Remembering these words will produce the kind of intergenerational faithfulness the church is desperately in need of. Remembering where one’s father erred, and where one’s father triumphed is key to the pursuit of true relevance.
Further Reading:
Chesterton, G.K. Orthodoxy
Guinness, Os. Prophetic Untimeliness
Lewis, C.S. Mere Christianity
Myers, Kenneth A. All God’s Children and Blue Suede Shoes
This article is part 2, the follow-up piece to “What’s So Bad about Tradition?”
