jaymack2

I am not an expert, but I've done enough reading to know that the gospels have many holes in them, many discrepancies and outright fabrications. What I'm curious about now is the role of what's called sacred tradition in Christianity. It seems that in the Catholic church anyway, there's this falling back on "tradition" whenever you bring up the problems with the Biblical texts. It's a convenient safety net, in my opinion, but it seems so vague and arbitrary as to be almost meaningless. When you say, "We believe that because sacred tradition tells us so," my question is, "Who decides what a valid tradition is, and what are the criteria?" It seems the church wants to somehow say, "We were there from the beginning, so we know what the real tradition is." But, it's a completely unprovable concept. Nobody really knows what the tradition (oral transmission of faith stories, plus customs, prayers, and rituals) was like 2,000 years ago, unless there's documentation by the early church fathers about it, and most of them were writing at least 100 years after Jesus' death. And besides, even if these traditions are true to what took place immediately after Jesus' death among the early Christians, how do we know that the traditions aren't just urban legends, tall tales, and the like?

Sorry for this long preamble, but what I want to know is if anyone can recommend a good scholarly book about the role of tradition in the church. I'd like to know just who decided what traditions are valid, and when all this was decided.

Clivedurdle

This is the stuff of the sociology and anthropology of religion. Durkheim Elementary Forms of the Religious Life is the classic starting point.

http://durkheim.itgo.com/religion.html

http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=e...czAP0Y#PPR5,M1

andrewcriddle

I made a suggestion in your earlier but similar thread http://iidb.infidels.org/vbb/showthread.php?t=241139

Andrew Criddle