Pure Tradition vs. History
Tradition - A Critical Primer - Steven Engler
Steven Engler [+]
Mount Royal University
Description
This chapter looks at the idea of pure tradition (unchanging, unaltered, immune to the forces of history) and contrasts it with a historical view of tradition (something that changes over time). The idea of pure tradition has great power when people believe it, even if it is not true. This underlines the value of looking at what people believe about tradition, not at what a given tradition truly is. For example, orthodox and conservative religious groups often portray themselves as the only groups that has the one and only pure, authentic, unchanged tradition. Perennialist views of tradition are discussed to illustrate these ideas. This is the view that there is a stream of ancient tradition kept alive over the ages, and only preserved in certain living communities. Perennialism is prominent in esotericism, but is also found in the study of religions, for example in the idea that all religions are expressions of the same ancient spiritual truth. This highlights the contrast between religionist (crypto-theological and perennialist) and historical/critical discourses on tradition. This book takes the latter approach. It investigates the historical, social and ideological processes that constitute traditions, and analyzes their conceptual presuppositions and implications.