Tradition, in regards to church, meant dead, obsolete, or completely irrelevant to me before Orthodoxy due to my background in the Evangelical movement.
However, after growing up in charismatic or large non-denominational churches, I became weary of continually hearing about the need for permanent reform in the church – every few years somebody finally “had it all figured out.” I wanted something different.
I happen to have an interest in church history, which eventually led me to the Eastern Orthodox Church. More on my story here.
This “Scripture vs. Tradition” series is the oldest one on my blog, completed before I became Orthodox. I was wrestling with my historical findings and their deep implications regarding everything I knew about what the church is and how it should look. My goal was to answer the question: how did we Christians get to where we are today? The format is essentially a quick outline of church history with some reflections added.
Because today’s audience prefers a blog post in the 400-500 word range, I have split my findings and conclusions into several blogs, most of which are quick, easy reads:
Section 1 – The early church and its scriptures
- Part 1 – An introduction to the series
- Part 2 – Early church history, authority, and Christian writings outside of the Bible
- Part 3 – Canonization: How we got our New Testament
- Part 4 – Miscellaneous reflections on the early church and canonization