Church Matters: Retrieving the Great Tradition

Ses s i on 4: Chur ch Mat ter s and Go i ng Back to the Future 81

D. Implications for us today: how might we resuscitate the Great Tradition in our largely Protestant contexts?

1. What might be the limits of our consensus ? Our reference to the Ecumenical Councils and Creeds is, therefore, focused on those Councils which retain a widespread agreement in the Church among Catholics, Orthodox, and Protestants. While Catholics and the Orthodox share common agreement on the first seven councils, Protestants tend to affirm and use primarily the first four. Therefore, those councils which continue to be shared by the whole Church are completed with the Council of Chalcedon in 451 (Ibid).

2. What is the final rule of debate, dialogue, and practice? The canonical Scriptures as they have been taught in connection with the Great Tradition!

II. We Need to Reaffirm Our Biblical Identity: The Great Tradition Affirmed the Church as One

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, [21] that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [22] The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, [23] I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. ~ John 17.20-23 (ESV)

A. The Great Tradition was unashamedly committed to the Scriptures as the faithful and final authoritative source of the apostolic witness to the Christ.

1. The Scriptures are inspired of God, breathed out by the Holy Spirit, 2 Tim. 3.16-17.