Tradition: Understanding Christian Tradition, GeraldO'Collins SJ, Oxford University Press, 2018 (ISBN 978‐0‐19‐883030‐6), xii + 148 pp., hb £20

Gerald O'Collins is Professor Emeritus of the Gregorian University in Rome and perhaps one of the most prolific writers in fundamental theology of the modern age. O′Collins's Tradition follows two other recent volumes, Revelation (OUP, 2016) and Inspiration (OUP, 2018). These latter two works respectively attempt to articulate a theology of revelation focused on the divine self-revelation of Christ, and the distinction and overlap between revelation, tradition, and inspiration. Both of these aspects are picked up and fleshed out further in Tradition. In Tradition, O'Collins seeks to draw upon sociology in order to explore the central characteristics of what ‘tradition’ means and the place of it in human life, as well as the particularities of what we mean by ‘Christian Tradition’. O'Collins proposes a sense in which specifically Christian notions of ‘tradition’ depend upon a direct interpretive relationship with Scripture and revolve around Christ as the central Tradition being handed on, with the Holy Spirit acting as ‘the essential, if invisible, agent of tradition’ (p. vii). The book offers a way to deal with the challenge of discerning and reforming particular traditions in light of the relationships that inhere between tradition, Scripture, Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the Christian community. For such a short book, O'Collins provides a critical and constructive tour de force. O'Collins offers a key distinction in his introduction between tradition as a process of handing on (actus tradendi, traditio activa) and tradition as what is handed on as an object or content (traditum, traditio passiva). This distinction shapes the contours of later chapters. The first chapter sets out the ecumenical convergence on the character and purpose of ‘tradition’ in the 1963 Montreal Faith and Order Conference that anticipated the later Catholic reflections on tradition during Vatican II, especially Dei Verbum in 1965. There, revelation, tradition, and the Scriptures were seen as continuous aspects of divine self-disclosure and reception of that disclosure. Rather than seeing ‘tradition’ as a static deposit, Jesus Christ was affirmed as the central Tradition being passed on as a living reality possessing the Church. Within this ‘total view of Tradition’ (p. 15) sit many traditions in preaching, worship, doctrine, mission and life, expressing, and manifesting Jesus Christ. The second chapter goes on to explore how sociology provides insights into the role of tradition in human life and the difference that tradition makes. A helpful appendix on memory studies and tradition adds to what Chapter 2 draws from sociology. In Chapter 2, however, O'Collins retrieves four points in particular from the work of the University of Chicago sociologist, Edward Shils, that shape the rest of the work, along with his conceptual distinction between tradition as process and object. First is the ‘global view of the persistence of the past’ (p. 25) in which inherited ‘traditions’ inextricably shape everyone. Second, this inherited past inexorably shapes personal identity, even when people reject that which they inherit. Third, the ‘bearers of tradition’ (p. 28) are both official and institutional and also unofficial and quotidian. Fourth, that ‘tradition’ has stability without being static, meaning that there needs to be conscious awareness of what inspires and legitimates either stability or change. In light of the distinctions made in the first two chapters, Chapters 3 through 5 then unpack seven characteristics of ‘Christian tradition’ (in which Christ is the central traditum), examine the ways in which ‘tradition’ is transmitted in the lives of the faithful and inspired by the Holy Spirit, and explore the mutual interpretive dependence of Scripture and tradition as witnesses to Christ. Chapter 6 considers how discernment is exercised in relation to current Christian traditions and in terms of retrieving forgotten traditions. O'Collins ends by suggesting ‘four questions … that should guide the task of discerning existing traditions’ (p. 121). O′Collins's book is a triumph of textual clarity, breadth of critical engagement, generosity of tone, and creativity of application. He takes up the promising but under-developed ecumenical promise of the 1960s, applying sociological categories in order to open up how we might understand the nature and importance of tradition in human and Christian life. He provides practical, sanguine, and realistic guidance as to how the breadth of Christian understandings might be able to converge on ‘tradition’ not as a source of conflict and intractable debate over a theological warrant but as a common and yet manifold witness to the self-disclosure of God in Jesus Christ made present to us. O'Collins gives a clear sense of how the Scriptures ‘play a major role for those who wish to discern the health or otherwise of existing tradition’ (p. 121), but how such a discernment must also be attentive to other religions and to secular atheism. Any cavils are small and almost embarrassing to mention in an otherwise commendable book. First, while there is an index of names, there is not a topical index. Given the breadth of conceptual engagement, this absence is a shame. Second, O'Collins at a number of points takes extensive pains to refute a negative review of an earlier work of his. In an otherwise charitable book, these excursions, often in footnote form, seem churlish. Yet such issues are miniscule in comparison to a fine achievement by O'Collins. It would be exciting to see if O'Collins might in future works consider reason and experience as other theological warrants in light of the centrality of divine revelation and inspiration.

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