Tradition and Sacred Texts

  Having defined ‘tradition’ and ‘sacred texts’, this article traces the developing Roman Catholic understanding of the relationship of tradition and scripture, looking especially at the formation of the canon and the attitude to inspiration. It places a particular stress on the central place of liturgy in this relationship. It then compares Catholic views with those of the Eastern Orthodox, noting particularly what Syrian exegesis has to teach Western readers, and with those of Protestant and Anglican Christianity. It then addresses the claims of the heirs of tradition, believers, to be interpreters of scripture vis‐à‐vis scientific biblical scholarship, concluding that they have great advantages in sympathy and imagination in entering into dialogue with the texts.