“Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. And, I suppose I should add, it is traditionalism that gives tradition such a bad name.”
The Vindication of Tradition: 1983 Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities (1984), p. 65.
Alternate version" Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living. Tradition lives in conversation with the past, while remembering where we are and when we are and that it is we who have to decide. Traditionalism supposes that nothing should ever be done for the first time, so all that is needed to solve any problem is to arrive at the supposedly unanimous testimony of this homogenized tradition.
in "Christianity as an enfolding circle," U.S. News & World Report (June 26, 1989), p. 57
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Jaroslav Pelikan 1
US historian of Christianity, Christian theology and mediev… 1923–2006Related quotes
"Paradigms Lost," interview with Gloria Brame, ELF: Eclectic Literary Forum (Spring 1995)
Interviews
“Faith which does not doubt is dead faith.”
Fe que no duda es fe muerta.
La Agonía del Cristianismo (The Agony of Christianity) (1931)
“The dead should not rule the living.”
“Now that I have seen I am responsible, faith without deeds is dead.”
"Albertine", in Albertine (2006)
"There are Two Seas" http://www.ciadvertising.org/student_account/spring_01/adv382j/suz/two_seas.htm, McCall's magazine (1928); reprinted in the Reader's Digest (1946)
Context: There are two seas in Palestine. One is fresh, and fish are in it. Splashes of green adorn its banks. Trees spread their branches over it and stretch out their thirsty roots to sip of its healing waters... The Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the Jordan. For every drop that flows into it another drop flows out. The giving and receiving go on in equal measure. The other sea is shrewder, hoarding its income jealously. It will not be tempted into any generous impulse. Every drop it gets, it keeps. The Sea of Galilee gives and lives. The other sea gives nothing. It is named The Dead. There are two kinds of people in the world. There are two seas in Palestine.
“Charity without faith is meaningless, and faith without charity remains a dead letter.”
Quoted in Elise Harris, " Priest Swaps Clerical Hats with 'Sharp, Healthy' Benedict XVI http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/priest-swaps-clerical-hats-with-sharp-healthy-benedict-xvi", National Catholic Register (11 February 2013)
2013