Sacred Roots Workshop

42 Sacred Roots Workshop: Retr ieving the Great Tradi t ion in the Contemporary Church

C. An extraordinary vision, a compelling testimony. A remarkably productive, visionary, creative, and vital age in the history of the world Christian movement!

1. In terms of time, the Great Tradition can be measured from the period between the time of Christ and the middle of fifth century.

2. This “tradition lying behind all particular Christian expressions” sought to faithfully articulate, express, and defend what the apostles passed down to us, and to embody its teaching, worship, discipleship, and experience.

3. It both predates and is the source for our specific associational and denominational emphases, and represents the foundation of all valid contemporary Christian thought and practice.

4. It represents the earliest Christian understanding and defense of the unfolding Story of God’s salvific action in creation, in God’s covenant with Abraham, and in the incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. 5. Their elegant, determined commitment to articulate a theology, express a worship, follow a spiritual formation, and conduct an outreach based on the Bible’s story of God’s sovereign grace, i.e., the apostolic witness of God’s actions in Christ.

III. What Precisely Are We Seeking to Reproduce?: Critical Dimensions of the Great Tradition

A. The Apostolic Tradition