Holy Tradition: An Essay in Reparation by Robert F. Slesinski

Abstract

Reviewed by: Holy Tradition: An Essay in Reparation by Robert F. Slesinski Thomas M. Kocik Robert F. Slesinski Holy Tradition: An Essay in Reparation Fairfax, VA: Eastern Christian Publications, 2018 50 pages. Paperback. $10.00. As we pray, so we believe, and as we believe, so we live. The lex orandi, the lex credendi, and the lex vivendi are so closely interrelated that to compromise one of them is to compromise all. The clerical sexual abuse scandals of recent times are existential proof of this. Moral depravity, failure to preach the Catholic faith in its entirety (including its teachings, in all particulars, on sexual morality), and corruption of liturgical practice are all symptoms of the same malady: infidelity; one might even say, in many cases, apostasy. The antidote, as the late Father Richard John Neuhaus was fond of saying, is “Fidelity, fidelity, fidelity.” Enter Holy Tradition, the eighth (albeit unnumbered) volume in a series of mystagogical catecheses in the Byzantine tradition by Father Robert Slesinski, a priest of the Ruthenian Catholic Eparchy of Passaic who holds a doctorate from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and specializes in Russian religious philosophy (the series’ most recent volume, The Holy Decalogue, was published in 2020). Aware of the damage the scandals have caused to the faith of many Catholics, Slesinski wrote this “Essay in Reparation” (the book’s subtitle) to “reaffirm the verve of the faithful, their daring to love God and their fellow human beings” by recovering “our ‘inner self’ as it has been nourished, however subtly, however implicitly, by the Holy Tradition of the Church” (12). The first chapter presents an etymology of “tradition.” This enormously rich and complex word comes from the Latin traditio, and before that from the past participle of the verb tradere, “to deliver” or “to hand down” something. But it also means “to surrender” or “to betray.” Thus, while the word consistently refers to the act of transmitting, it can convey more than one sense of the concept: not only “hand down” but also “hand over.” Slesinski [End Page 305] explains in personalist terms that Christian Tradition is not simply a transmission or handing down of revealed truths from one generation to the next within the Church, but a living Person, the continuation of divine truth and life present in Jesus Christ. The traditum, the great heritage to be passed on, is the Son who reveals the Father and is ever present to us through the Holy Spirit. The author then takes up Tradition’s relation to Scripture (chapter 2) and the Church’s catechetical teaching (chapter 3). Since this is not dogmatic theology, there is no discussion of the formation of the biblical canon, the development of doctrine, or the debate (now overcome) over the “sources” of revelation. Instead, Slesinski highlights particular Pauline texts (e.g., 1 Cor 11:23–26) to illustrate that Tradition was being preached and lived before the New Testament writings came into existence. When St. Paul and the early Christian teachers referred to the receiving or transmitting of the gospel message, they did not have specifically in mind the books later known as the New Testament, but rather the apostolic testimony as expressed in the Church’s day-to-day preaching, sacramental life, catechetics, and ways of Christian living. While Paul often refers to traditions (plural) to signify the whole Christian revelation (2 Thes 2:15), he also acknowledges merely human traditions (Gal 1:14; Col 2:8) that can and, in his case, did prove deleterious. Slesinski recalls Christ’s reprimand of the Pharisees who used the “traditions of the ancients” as a device for nullifying the word of God (Mt 15:1–9; Mk 7:1–15)—or, we could say, for distorting the true Old Testament Tradition. The Catechism of the Catholic Church distinguishes Tradition, which together with Scripture carries the Word of God, the sole source of divine revelation, from traditions (small “t”), in the sense of ecclesiastical institutions, disciplines, theological formulations, devotional practices, and modes of living to be preserved, modified, or even abandoned. These individual traditions are all involved in the living transmission of the Tradition, though not all of them can be...