Scripture and Holy Tradition

Orthodox theology does not set Scripture and tradition against each other, and does not treat Tradition as a second body of facts alongside the Bible. Tradition is the whole life of the Church in the Holy Spirit — worship, councils, Fathers, canons, iconography — within which Scripture is read, and by which the Church knows which books Scripture contains.

Irenaeus made the argument in the second century against those who claimed a secret apostolic teaching: the apostles left their teaching to the churches, publicly, and those churches teach the same thing everywhere. Vincent of Lérins gave it the form most often quoted, and immediately qualified it.

The consensus of the Fathers, not the opinion of any one Father, is what carries weight. Individual Fathers can be, and have been, mistaken.

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• Irenaeus of Lyons

  Bishop in Gaul who had heard Polycarp as a boy; the first great theologian of Tradition, of the fourfold Gospel, and of salvation as the recapitulation of all things in Christ.

  Father or writer

• Vincent of Lérins

  A monk of the island monastery of Lérins whose Commonitory asks how a Christian can tell the Church's faith from novelty, and answers with a rule that has been quoted, and misquoted, ever since.

  Father or writer

• How Scripture was formed

  A gradual ecclesial process, not a single decision — and certainly not one taken at Nicaea.

  Theme

• Scripture within Holy Tradition

  Not two sources of information, but one life in which the Scriptures are read.

  Lesson