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When Evangelicals Treat Catholic Tradition Like Revelation
By Mark P. Shea

In the following article, adapted with permission from his book "By What Authority?: An Evangelical Discovers Catholic Tradition" (Our Sunday Visitor Books), Mark recounts his thought processes when he was an Evangelical considering the role of tradition, which Evangelicals supposedly reject in belief and practice.

I wondered: Is it really true that we Evangelicals never treat extra-biblical tradition as authoritative revelation? Is it really the case that all Evangelical belief is derived from the clear and unambiguous teaching of the Bible alone? Do we really speak forth only what Scripture speaks, keep silent where Scripture is silent, and never bind the conscience of the believer on those questions in which Scripture permits different interpretations?

To find out, I decided to try an experiment. I would look at Evangelical—not Catholic—belief and practice to see if there were any evidence of tradition being treated like revelation. I would see if there were any rock-bottom, non-negotiable, can’t-do-without-’em beliefs that were not attested (or very weakly attested) in the Bible, yet which we orthodox Evangelicals treated like revelation. If I found such things, and if they had an ancient pedigree, it seemed to me this would be very strong evidence that the apostolic tradition not only was larger than the Bible alone, but had—somehow—been handed down to the present.

So I started taking a good long look at non-negotiable Evangelical beliefs as they were actually lived out in my church and churches like it. To my surprise, I found several such weakly attested non-negotiables.

THE SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE

Arguably the most pressing issue of our time is the question of the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death. While you are reading this, several thousand preborn babies, ranging in age from first trimester to full term, are going to be legally suctioned, burned, dismembered, or decapitated by skilled professionals. As this evil occurs, a bewildered modern society, long ago cut adrift from its Christian roots, will not recoil in horror but will instead flop its hands passively in its lap, register a befuddled shrug of discomfort, and continue lacking the capacity to tell whether or not this is bad.

continued here: When Evangelicals Treat Catholic Tradition Like Revelation

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