Capture The Vindication Of Tradition: The 1983 Jefferson Lecture In The Humanities Author Jaroslav Pelikan Conveyed As Electronic Format

premier church historian, offers up a truly challenging read that wrestles with tradition and its particular role in religious life, "Tradition is the living faith of the dead, Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living, " This quote was the most salient point for me in reading this short compilation of lectures, Pelikan makes use of a number of popular figures, from Thomas Jefferson to John Henry Newmann and Ralph Waldo Emerson in addressing the importance of tradition, innovation and creativity.
An interesting book, somewhat dry at points, but interesting, especially for readers who are not prone to what C, S. Lewis termed "chronological snobbery. " Pelikan's notion that new is not always better, particularly in the realm of Christianity, where tradition is alive and well informed, Pelikan could hardly fail to present some little thoughtgems worthy of admiration, I especially enjoyed the simple but necessary distinction between rediscovery of and recovery of tradition, and his definition that "tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.
" Truly, progressivism of one sort or another has always been the trend of humanity though sometimes the current moves swiftly, sometimes hardly at all, and we are constantly in need of calls back to rediscover tradition and discern what is worth recovering.


Yet, these lectures were not as staggeringly excellent as I had hoped they might prove, In some ways, they are most interesting for seeing the seeds of Pelikan's eventual conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy, His examples are decidedly tinged with an edge against Luther and toward Orthodox fathers, icons, etc,

More than that, the thoughts feel surprisingly timebound, Somehow what should be a timeless topic shows its age ofyears and has not aged as gracefully as one might have hoped.


Altogether, not a waste of time to read, but not something that will take an honored place on my bookshelves, Fantastic little book from Pelikan on the role of tradition, He examines the role that tradition should play in our lives, and he argues against the extremes of either denial/jettisoning and blind obedience.
Tradition should give us a starting place to engage with the advantage of having been tried and tested by those who came before, and it should be a place of learning and engage us in the fundamental matters of the tradition.
To deny tradition altogether is to invite something else to inevitably assume the vacuum, It's a quick read, but it's helpful to digest and absorb the arguments he makes, Jaroslav Pelikan was among the preeminent church historians of theth century, It's in this set of lectures given inas the National Endowment for the Humanities Thomas Jefferson Lectures that he laid out his understanding of tradition, why it might be rediscovered, recovered, understood.
It is here that he makes his famous distinction between tradition living faith of the dead and traditionalism dead faith of the living.


The reason we turn aside from tradition, he notes, is likely because of traditionalism that embrace of what is old for the sake of its being old, not because it has been critically examined and understood to be of importance.


Why examine tradition Because all ideas and practices have a history! Even, I would say, postmodern ones! Excellent! Not easy to read.
I thoroughly enjoyed Pelikans first volume in his series “The Christian Tradition” and this little series of lectures likewise thrilled me from the beginning.
Fair argument for the human need of tradition: Pelikan sees it as something we must proceed "beyond, but through" in order to reach new insight.
His juxtaposition of tradition vs traditionalism is probably what these lectures are most famous for, as it offers a clear framework in which to differentiate between "the living faith of the dead" tradition, something that is necessary for future insight or the "dead faith of the living" traditionalism, clutching forms without understanding.
In this carefully reasoned book, noted historian and theologian Jaroslav Pelikan offers a moving and spirited defense of the importance of tradition,

“Magisterial. Ought not to be missed, ”M. D. Aeschliman, National

“A soulstirring selfanalysis, no less than a distillation of the lifework of the living historian best qualified to provide solutions to those Tradition versus BibleOnly controversies that have plagued Christianity since the Reformation.
”L. K. Shook, Canadian Catholic

“Admirably concise and penetrating, ”Merle Rubin, The Christian Science Monitor

“It takes a scholar thoroughly steeped in a subject to be able to write with lucidity and charm about its traditions.
  When the scholar is Dr, Pelikan, the result is a kind of classic, something sure to become a standard text for an interested public, ”Northrop Frye

“Wit, grace, style, and wisdom vie with knowledge,   A rare combination, delightful to mind and memory,   Recommended broadly for scholarly and general use on many levels, and especially among theology students, undergraduate and graduate, ”Choice

“Pelikans customary erudition, wit, and gracious style are evident throughout this stimulating volume, ”Harold E. Remus, Religious Studies

“The book clearly constitutes a unified plea that modern society finds ways and means to recapture the resources of the past and to overcome its fear of the tyranny of the dead.
”Heiko A. Oberman, Times Literary Supplement

Jaroslav Pelikan is Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University,   Among his many books are Jesus Through the Centuries and the multivolume work The Christian Tradition, Ah, it was nice to read intellectual discourse again it had been a while, especially concerning nonfiction, I don't mind name dropping, but I have Robert Duncan Culver's copy he parted with it willingly, replete with his own comments and asides, making it a nifty bonusfilled read for me and whoever gets it after I shuffle off.
As you likely know, Mr, Pelikan is pretty top notch about things, and his insights and enjoinments and adjurations make a good deal of sense throughout his four mostly connected lectures/essays.
I wish it were longer, actually, He does a fine job contextualizing all sides of the Tradition issue, including the atheists who think it's all rubbish, even pointing out how those who continue to follow Emerson's call for rejecting tradition are guilty of following a tradition.
It's full of spectacular lines, none of which will be quoted here because it's all the way upstairs and I'm down here, Track this down. It's really good. Of course, if you are one of those Emersonians, you'll probably not like it because it will point out how wrong you are, yet it will do so intelligently and respectfully something you may not be used to from people who disagree with you and write things post things today.
Jaroslav Pelikan's The Vindication of Tradition is a dense, heady examination of the role of tradition in Western/Christian culture, The The Vindication of Tradition's focus is primarily centered around the Christian tradition as informed and influenced by Greek thought, but the arguments it makes could, in their spirited defense of inherited tradition vs.
a Bibleasonlysource approach to Christianity, just as easily be applied to, for example, the defense of oral Torah in Judaism, or the role of tradition in helping us interpret and understand the intentions of the crafters of the U.
S. Constitution. Pelikan makes a strong case that maintaining a respect for and understanding of tradition is as much a necessity to fully understanding Western religious and cultural movements as are the Biblical texts which serve as the source of these movements.
His defense is reasoned and tempered by a nuanced argument for tradition “the living faith of the dead” over traditionalism a fetishization of tradition, or “the dead faith of the living”.


The Vindication of Tradition is a scholarly work, and one that assumes some knowledge of the intellectual history of Christianity specifically as carried forward by Catholicism.
Nevertheless, it remains accessible to a general audience, both Christian and nonChristian, religious and nonreligious, though it will primarily be of interest to those who are interested in religious or constitutional debates between interpretations informed by tradition and those informed by a more strictly fundamentalist approach.
Because this book was originally delivered as a series of lectures it has a certain candidness that most scholarly books lack, yet it maintains the level of erudition one expects from a scholar of Pelikan's magnitude.
I recommend this book to anyone studying church history and/or development of doctrine in an academic setting, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan was born in Akron, Ohio, to a Slovak father and mother, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Sr, and Anna Buzekova Pelikan. His father was pastor of Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church in Chicago, Illinois, and his paternal grandfather a bishop of the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches then known as the Slovak Lutheran Church in America.
According to family members, Pelikans mother taught him how to use a typewriter when he was three years old, as he could not yet hold a pen properly but wanted to write.
A polyglot, Pelikans facility with languages may be traced to his multilingual childhood and early training, That linguistic facility was to serve him in the career he ultimately chose after contemplating becoming a concert pianist Jaroslav Jan Pelikan was born in Akron, Ohio, to a Slovak father and mother, Jaroslav Jan Pelikan Sr.
and Anna Buzekova Pelikan. His father was pastor of Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church in Chicago, Illinois, and his paternal grandfather a bishop of the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches then known as the Slovak Lutheran Church in America.
According to family members, Pelikan's mother taught him how to use a typewriter when he was three years old, as he could not yet hold a pen properly but wanted to write.
A polyglot, Pelikan's facility with languages may be traced to his multilingual childhood and early training, That linguistic facility was to serve him in the career he ultimately chose after contemplating becoming a concert pianist as a historian of Christian doctrine.
He did not confine his studies to Roman Catholic and Protestant theological history, but also embraced that of the Christian East, Inwhen he was, he earned both a seminary degree from Concordia Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri and a Ph, D. at the University of Chicago, Pelikan wrote

thanbooks, including the five volume The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Some of his later works attained crossover appeal, reaching beyond the scholarly sphere into the general reading public notably, Mary Through the Centuries, Jesus Through the Centuries and Whose Bible Is It.
Hisbook The Vindication of Tradition gave rise to an often quoted one liner, In an interview in U, S. News World Report June,, he said: "Tradition is the living faith of the dead traditionalism is the dead faith of the living, Tradition lives in conversation with the past, while remembering where we are and when we are and that it is we who have to decide.
"Traditionalism supposes that nothing should ever be done for the first time, so all that is needed to solve any problem is to arrive at the supposedly unanimous testimony of this homogenized tradition.
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