The Rev GDVWiebe SSC.,PhD" <gdvw@...> wrote:     > Happily Anglicanism ideally provides for a wider more complete and
authentic view of 2000 years of Holy Tradition in all its fullness.
   

   
  The Christian Faith by C.B. Moss
   
  The Anglican position on Scripture and Tradition  
       1. Holy Scripture Contains all that is Necessary to Salvation  
  The apostles received the teaching of our Lord by word of mouth, and it was supplemented by the Holy Spirit.  Oral tradition1 came before the writing of the new Testament (I Cor. 11:23; 15:3; Gal. 1:12; cf. St. Luke 1:1).  The books of the New Testament form the earliest layers of the only tradition to which we have any access.  In the second century the controversy with the Gnostics, who claimed to have a secret tradition of their own different from and superior to that of the Church, led to the erection of two safeguards: the Canon of Scripture, and the succession of the bishops.  Whatever was not found in the recognized books could not be part of the revelation of God; and the teaching of Scripture was supported by the teaching of the bishops, especially the bishops whose sees were believed to have been founded by apostles.
  1 That is, teaching not written down, but delivered by word of mouth.
   
   
  The principle that Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation was held by all the Fathers.  Thus Origen says, "In the two Testaments every word that appertaineth to God may be sought and discussed"; St. Athanasius, "The holy and Divinely inspired Scriptures are sufficient of themselves to the discovery of truth"; St. Basil, "Believe those things that are written, seek not the things that are not written"; St. Augustine, "Whatsoever ye hear [from the holy Scriptures], let that savor well unto you; whatsoever is without them refuse".  St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Hippolytus, St. Cyprian, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Gregory of Nyssa, St. John Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, St. Hilary, St. Jerome, St. John of Damascus, and many others agree.  Two or three passages in St. Basil, St. Epiphanius, and St. John Chrysostom, which appear to teach the opposite, really when examined turn out to refer not to necessary doctrines but to customs and rules of discipline which cannot all
 be found in Scripture.  See especially St. Basil, On the Holy Spirit, 66; and compare Philaret,s Longer Catechism of the Russian Church, questions 23, 24.
       2. The Contrary Teaching of Trent  
  The Council of Trent, in order to enforce the medieval system of doctrine and practice, laid down that there are two sources of necessary doctrine, Scripture and tradition, which the Roman Communion interprets as meaning that tradition alone, without Scripture, is a sufficient basis for a necessary doctrine.  This principle has, as we shall see, opened the door to many new dogmas which cannot be proved by Scripture. 
       3. Anglican Emphasis on the Uniqueness of Scripture  
  The Anglican Communion requires all its priests to declare at their ordination that they "are persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all doctrine required of necessity to eternal salvation" and that they are determined "to teach nothing, as required of necessity to eternal salvation, but that which they shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture".  The same principle is laid down in Articles 6 and 20. It is summed up in the saying, "The Church to teach, the Bible to prove".  As we have seen, the Anglican Communion has the unanimous agreement of the Fathers in support of this principle, but it is not accepted by the Roman Communion and forms one of the main differences between the two Communions.
       4. Orthodox Eastern Teaching  
  The Orthodox Eastern Communion has not defined any formal dogma like that of Trent on the relations of Scripture and tradition; but as it possesses a body of unbroken tradition which has never been interrupted or even criticized, it lays much more stress on tradition than the Anglican Communion which was forced in the sixteenth century to reject many medieval traditions and to establish a principle on which they could be rejected.  On the other hand, the development of tradition in the Orthodox Communion has not gone so far as in the Roman Communion, nor have the Orthodox churches hardened their tradition into dogma to the same extent as Rome did at the Tridentine and Vatican Councils.



		
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