More and More are Returning to Tradition

Zac HicksConvergence of Old and New in Worship, History of Worship and Church Music1 Comment

In case you haven’t seen the 2007 US News article, “A Return to Tradition,” it’s worth a read.  It corroborates a lot of what this blog has been saying over its short life-span.  Retrieval and recovery is something that evangelicals are becoming more and more interested in, but it’s not limited to evangelicals.  

Though some would advocate tradition for tradition’s sake, I don’t think this is what this shift is ultimately about.  The folks I personally know who are returning to this are doing so because they recognize that many traditions have stood the test of time for a reason–they are biblically sound and faithful to historic, orthodox Christian theology.

As you read the article, note that it mentions that some are returning to “ancient paths” through a convergence-style methodology, wedding old things with new things.

Here’s an excerpt:

Something curious is happening in the wide world of faith, something that defies easy explanation or quantification. More substantial than a trend but less organized than a movement, it has to do more with how people practice their religion than with what they believe, though people caught up in this change often find that their beliefs are influenced, if not subtly altered, by the changes in their practice.

Put simply, the development is a return to tradition and orthodoxy, to past practices, observances, and customary ways of worshiping. But it is not simply a return to the past—at least not in all cases. Even while drawing on deep traditional resources, many participants are creating something new within the old forms.

One Comment on “More and More are Returning to Tradition”

  1. I, for one, am just another statistic in this trend. After being roused from my dogmatic slumber by some painful occurrences in church work, I began to question more and more the how and why of the faith. The result led me away from trend-driven evangelical churches into Lutheranism. It's just good to have a tradition to anchor you in the Christian life, and comforting to see this happening more and more on a broader scale.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *