Sect. 15Gradual Progress in the Transmission of Revelation—apostolic Deposit: Ecclesiastical Tradition: Rule of FaithGradual Progress in the Transmission of Revelation—apostolic Deposit: Ecclesiastical Tradition: Rule of Faith
I. The office-holders in the Teaching Apostolate form one unbroken chain, derived from God, and consequently the doctrine announced by them at any given time is a continuation and a development of the doctrine originally revealed, and is invested with the same Divine character Jesus Christ, the immediate Envoy of His Father, announced what He had heard from the Father; the Apostles, the immediate envoys of Christ, preached what they had heard from Christ and the Holy Ghost; the successors of the Apostles, the inheritors of the apostolic mission, in their turn taught and still teach the doctrine received from the Apostles, and thus Revelation has been handed down from generation to generation without a single break.
The transmission and the teaching of Revelation are really one and the same act under two different aspects. Whenever the Word of God is announced, it is also transmitted, and it cannot be transmitted without being announced in some form or other. Thus transmission and publication are not two acts of a distinct nature, as they would be if Revelation was handed down only by means of a written document, or on merely historical evidence. The Council of Trent tells us that Traditions, “dictated by the Holy Ghost, have reached us from the Apostles, handed down as it were by hand,” and it speaks of “Traditions preserved by continual succession in the Catholic Church” (sess. iv). The transmission is the work of living, authorized officials, who hand down Revelation to the lawful heirs of their office. We must, however, distinguish between the authenticity and the authority of the act of transmission. When, for instance, a council makes the belief in some dogma obligatory, this act contains a twofold element: it bears authentic witness to the existence of the dogma in the Apostolic Deposit, and it authoritatively imposes Faith in that dogma. The authentic testimony belongs to the whole Church, which, either in teaching or in professing belief, witnesses to the existence of certain truths, whereas the power of imposing the obligation of belief resides only in the governing body and its Head. But the word “Tradition” does not express any notion of “Faith made obligatory,” but only of “Faith handed down by authentic witnesses.” We shall therefore use the term in the latter sense, although, as a matter of fact, transmission and imposition usually go together.
II. Three phases, more or less divided by time, but still alike in their nature, may be observed in the development and gradual progress of the transmission of revealed doctrine: (1) The Apostles confiding the Deposit of Revelation to the Church with the obligation to continue its promulgation; (2) The transmission of Revelation in and by means of the Church; and (3) The enforcement of belief by the Rule of Faith imposed by the Chiefs of the Apostolate.
1. The Apostles were the original depositaries of Christian Revelation, as well as its first heralds. They handed over to their successors the truths which they possessed, together with the powers corresponding to their mission, This first stage is called Apostolic Tradition, or Apostolic Deposit, the latter expression being derived from 1 Tim. 6:20, “Keep that which is committed to thy trust” (depositum, παραθήκην). All subsequent knowledge of Revelation is drawn from the Apostolic Deposit, which is consequently said to be the Source or Fount of Faith.
The Apostolic Deposit was transmitted in a twofold form: by word of mouth and by writing. The New Testament, although composed by the Apostles or their disciples, is not a mere reproduction of the Apostolic teaching. It was written at God’s command by men under His inspiration, and therefore it is, like the Old Testament, an original and authentic document of Revelation. Both Testaments were, as we shall see, transmitted to the Church by an authoritative act of the Apostolate. The Apostolic Deposit comprises, therefore, the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the oral teaching of the Apostles. By a process of desynonymization, the term “Deposit” has become restricted to the written Deposit, and the term “Tradition” to the oral teaching.
2. It is the Church’s office to hold and to transmit the entire Deposit, written and oral, in its integrity, and to deal with it as the Apostles themselves would if they were still living. This action of the Church is called Active Tradition; the doctrines themselves are called Objective Tradition. The term “Ecclesiastical Tradition” is sometimes used in a narrow sense for the unwritten truths of Revelation, and stands in the same relation to the Holy Scriptures as the oral teaching of the Apostles stood. In the course of time this Tradition has also been committed to writing, and as a written Tradition its position with regard to the living Active Tradition is now analogous to that occupied by the Holy Scriptures.
3. But the Church has a further office. The heirs of the Apostles have the right and duty to prescribe, promulgate, and maintain at all times and in behalf of the whole Church the teaching of the Apostles and of the Church in former ages; to impose and to enforce it as a doctrinal law binding upon all; and to give authoritative decisions on points obscure, controverted, or denied. In this capacity the Church acts as regulator of the Faith, and these doctrinal laws, together with the act of imposing them, are called the Rule of Faith. All the members of the Church are bound to submit their judgment in matters of Faith to this rule, and thus by practising the “obedience of Faith” to prove themselves living members of the one kingdom of Divine truth.
Thus we see that the Divine economy for preserving and enforcing Christian truth in the Church possesses in an eminent degree all the aids and guarantees which are made use of in civil society for the safe custody and interpretation of legal documents. In both there are documents of various kinds, witnesses, public and private, and judges of different rank. But in the Church the judges are at the same time witnesses, administrators, and legislators. In the Protestant theory there are written documents and nothing more.
I. The office-holders in the Teaching Apostolate form one unbroken chain, derived from God, and consequently the doctrine announced by them at any given time is a continuation and a development of the doctrine originally revealed, and is invested with the same Divine character Jesus Christ, the immediate Envoy of His Father, announced what He had heard from the Father; the Apostles, the immediate envoys of Christ, preached what they had heard from Christ and the Holy Ghost; the successors of the Apostles, the inheritors of the apostolic mission, in their turn taught and still teach the doctrine received from the Apostles, and thus Revelation has been handed down from generation to generation without a single break.
The transmission and the teaching of Revelation are really one and the same act under two different aspects. Whenever the Word of God is announced, it is also transmitted, and it cannot be transmitted without being announced in some form or other. Thus transmission and publication are not two acts of a distinct nature, as they would be if Revelation was handed down only by means of a written document, or on merely historical evidence. The Council of Trent tells us that Traditions, “dictated by the Holy Ghost, have reached us from the Apostles, handed down as it were by hand,” and it speaks of “Traditions preserved by continual succession in the Catholic Church” (sess. iv). The transmission is the work of living, authorized officials, who hand down Revelation to the lawful heirs of their office. We must, however, distinguish between the authenticity and the authority of the act of transmission. When, for instance, a council makes the belief in some dogma obligatory, this act contains a twofold element: it bears authentic witness to the existence of the dogma in the Apostolic Deposit, and it authoritatively imposes Faith in that dogma. The authentic testimony belongs to the whole Church, which, either in teaching or in professing belief, witnesses to the existence of certain truths, whereas the power of imposing the obligation of belief resides only in the governing body and its Head. But the word “Tradition” does not express any notion of “Faith made obligatory,” but only of “Faith handed down by authentic witnesses.” We shall therefore use the term in the latter sense, although, as a matter of fact, transmission and imposition usually go together.
II. Three phases, more or less divided by time, but still alike in their nature, may be observed in the development and gradual progress of the transmission of revealed doctrine: (1) The Apostles confiding the Deposit of Revelation to the Church with the obligation to continue its promulgation; (2) The transmission of Revelation in and by means of the Church; and (3) The enforcement of belief by the Rule of Faith imposed by the Chiefs of the Apostolate.
1. The Apostles were the original depositaries of Christian Revelation, as well as its first heralds. They handed over to their successors the truths which they possessed, together with the powers corresponding to their mission, This first stage is called Apostolic Tradition, or Apostolic Deposit, the latter expression being derived from 1 Tim. 6:20, “Keep that which is committed to thy trust” (depositum, παραθήκην). All subsequent knowledge of Revelation is drawn from the Apostolic Deposit, which is consequently said to be the Source or Fount of Faith.
The Apostolic Deposit was transmitted in a twofold form: by word of mouth and by writing. The New Testament, although composed by the Apostles or their disciples, is not a mere reproduction of the Apostolic teaching. It was written at God’s command by men under His inspiration, and therefore it is, like the Old Testament, an original and authentic document of Revelation. Both Testaments were, as we shall see, transmitted to the Church by an authoritative act of the Apostolate. The Apostolic Deposit comprises, therefore, the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the oral teaching of the Apostles. By a process of desynonymization, the term “Deposit” has become restricted to the written Deposit, and the term “Tradition” to the oral teaching.
2. It is the Church’s office to hold and to transmit the entire Deposit, written and oral, in its integrity, and to deal with it as the Apostles themselves would if they were still living. This action of the Church is called Active Tradition; the doctrines themselves are called Objective Tradition. The term “Ecclesiastical Tradition” is sometimes used in a narrow sense for the unwritten truths of Revelation, and stands in the same relation to the Holy Scriptures as the oral teaching of the Apostles stood. In the course of time this Tradition has also been committed to writing, and as a written Tradition its position with regard to the living Active Tradition is now analogous to that occupied by the Holy Scriptures.
3. But the Church has a further office. The heirs of the Apostles have the right and duty to prescribe, promulgate, and maintain at all times and in behalf of the whole Church the teaching of the Apostles and of the Church in former ages; to impose and to enforce it as a doctrinal law binding upon all; and to give authoritative decisions on points obscure, controverted, or denied. In this capacity the Church acts as regulator of the Faith, and these doctrinal laws, together with the act of imposing them, are called the Rule of Faith. All the members of the Church are bound to submit their judgment in matters of Faith to this rule, and thus by practising the “obedience of Faith” to prove themselves living members of the one kingdom of Divine truth.
Thus we see that the Divine economy for preserving and enforcing Christian truth in the Church possesses in an eminent degree all the aids and guarantees which are made use of in civil society for the safe custody and interpretation of legal documents. In both there are documents of various kinds, witnesses, public and private, and judges of different rank. But in the Church the judges are at the same time witnesses, administrators, and legislators. In the Protestant theory there are written documents and nothing more.
Seção 6% da obra, de A Manual of Catholic Theology (Wilhelm & Scannell, sobre a Dogmatik de Scheeben). Ver o original.