LITMIR.BIZ

      Figure 1. Three sources of Evangelicalism

Of the many references that undergird Part I, a little book on the great tradition coauthored by David Dockery and Timothy George and published by Crossway has been most helpful to my purpose.3 Of the words used in the title of that book the one most likely to give pause to some readers is the word “tradition.” However, Dockery and George quote the Methodist scholar Thomas Oden, who says, “All that is meant by tradition, then, is the faithful handing down from generation to generation of scripture interpretation consensually received worldwide and cross-culturally through two millennia.”4 Oden’s phraseology is worth pondering—“scripture interpretation,” “consensually received,” “worldwide and cross-culturally,” “handed down through two millennia.” That is precisely what we are attempting to discover here, and it is not only good, it is “essential to evangelicalism.”

      1. Sweeney, “Introduction.” See also, Sweeney, American Evangelical Story, 82.

      2. Sweeney, “Introduction,” 2.

      3. Dockery and George, Great Tradition.

      4. Oden, Rebirth of Orthodoxy, 32.

      Chapter 1

      “Based on Classical Christian Orthodoxy”

      Acknowledging a special debt to Douglas Sweeney’s historically oriented definition of what it means to be evangelical on the one hand, and what has proved to be a complementary study of The Great Tradition of Christian Thinking by David Dockery and Timothy George on the other, we begin our study with the early church and the apostolic fathers. With the completion of the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus and his return to the Father, where did they find true doctrine and divine direction? Paul answers that question in large part when, addressing the church at Thessalonica, he admonished believers to “stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (2 Thess 2:15). The Christian great tradition begins with the inspiration and inscripturation of the word of God and proceeds with its proclamation, dissemination, and instruction.

      The Scripture Canon: The Old and New Testaments

Wherever the Christian faith has been found, there has been a close association with the written Word of God, with books, education, and learning. Studying and interpreting the Bible became natural for the early Christian community, having inherited the practice from late Judaism.5

      The great tradition is not only rooted in the biblical text itself but also in the history of the study and interpretation of the biblical text. It shows that, historically, Bible interpretation was informed by approaches inherited from intertesta­mental Judaism and the Graeco-Roman world of the apostles. However, with the passing of the apostles various needs surfaced: the need for an authoritative Scripture canon, the need to clarify and defend apostolic beliefs and practices, the need to encounter and counter false religionists, the need to reply to heresies within the church, and the need to respond to persecution from without the church. In one form or another—and to one or another degree—these challenges continued and were met by the church throughout the classical period and beyond.

The single most important part of the Christian Tradition is, of course, the New Testament itself.6 Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would bring what he had taught them to the minds of the apostles and “guide them into all truth” (John 16:13). That promise was extended so as to include the apostle Paul and Luke the historian. Scholars disagree as to the date of the pastorals, Peter’s epistles, Hebrews, James, Jude, and the Gospel of John, but it is safe to say that by the end of the first century or very shortly thereafter the early church possessed at least a good part of the New Testament and accorded it the authority that went with apostolic authorship. With that authority and additional agreements among the churches, the New Testament canon essentially as we have it today was accepted by the churches before two more centuries had passed. That Bible came to be our Bible and with it came the true truth and undivided authority that forever attends the word of God.

      The apostolic witness contained in the writings of the apostles, then, was the authoritative source for addressing key issues that faced the early church. The following table summarizes these issues and key figures and events in the second through the fifth centuries of the church.