Holding to the Tradition

Abstract

There are no simple answers to a question like, ‘What is the gospel?’, and usually our response will be directed by the formulations of creeds that were established long after the New Testament literature itself was written. From a reading of the New Testament, a fair answer may be that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ, who, through the transforming power of the Resurrection, is the way, the truth and the life. But if the answer implies that the transmission of that essential tradition is entrusted throughout the human race and from generation to generation, to the Church, then no doubt we have cause to be gloomy. For the Church itself often seems to be divided about the content of the tradition, and seems singularly unable to communicate the universal spirit of its claims to more than a small proportion of humanity.

Stand firm, then, brothers, and hold fast to the traditions which you have learned from us by word or by letter.

(II Thessalonians 2:15)