Tradition in Revolution: Harold J. Berman and the Historical Understanding of the Papacy

Abstract

Is tradition a living, vital force guiding us steadily through our contemporary crises? Or is it merely the dead hand of the past? This is the dilemma Harold Berman continually confronted in his magisterial work on the Western Legal Tradition. In his historiography, Berman decisively favored the first view. The Papacy, he made clear in his seminal work Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition, has, like all institutions, gone through stages of growth. In my evaluation of his work, I consider this historiography and its implications for contemporary Catholicism and Pope Francis's impending reform of the Church.