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Course 21 · Lesson 7.2

A method: source, date, doctrine, authority and consequence

10 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 21 outline

Module 1: The Theology of Worship

  1. What liturgy is: the word, the idea and the debate
  2. Worship in the Old and New Testaments
  3. Praying and believing: how worship shapes doctrine and doctrine shapes worship
  4. Word, sacrament and sign across the traditions

Module 2: How Christian Liturgy Developed

  1. The earliest descriptions: the Didache, Justin Martyr and the early church orders
  2. The liturgical families of East and West
  3. The Reformation and the revision of worship
  4. Liturgical renewal in the twentieth century

Module 3: The Christian Year: Calendars, Feasts and Fasts

  1. Sunday, the week and the hours of the day
  2. Easter, Holy Week and the dispute over the date
  3. Advent, Christmas and Epiphany
  4. Lent, the Orthodox fasting seasons and Protestant approaches to fasting
  5. Saints days and the second cycle of the calendar

Module 4: Sacred Space and Sacred Images

  1. From house church to basilica: the development of church buildings
  2. The meaning of church buildings: altar, table, orientation and the Orthodox and Gothic examples
  3. Icons and the Incarnation: John of Damascus and the Second Council of Nicaea
  4. Images and the Reformation: Lutheran, Reformed and Anglican approaches

Module 5: Material Signs: Incense, Water, Oil and Blessings

  1. Incense: Scripture, temple worship and its use in the churches
  2. Water: baptism, the renewal of baptismal vows and holy water
  3. Oil: anointing of the sick, chrismation, confirmation and ordination
  4. Blessings: what the church means when it blesses a person, a house or an object
  5. Sacraments and sacramentals: the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant vocabulary

Module 6: Popular Piety and Devotional Practice

  1. What popular piety is, and why scholars take it seriously
  2. Pilgrimage, relics, medals and pious objects
  3. The rosary, the Stations of the Cross, litanies and akathists
  4. How the churches have regulated and corrected popular devotion

Module 7: Telling Tradition from Superstition

  1. What the theologians mean by superstition, and why the line is hard to draw
  2. A method: source, date, doctrine, authority and consequence
  3. Case studies: apocryphal legends, magical formulas and invented history
  4. Honesty and respect in judging other people’s devotion

All courses

Program / Course 21: Liturgical Theology / Lesson 7.2

What you will learn

  • State the five questions of the method and what each one tests.
  • Apply the method to a worked example, the sign of the cross.
  • Distinguish a well-attested tradition, a later development, popular piety and an unsupported claim.
  • Recognize the limits of the method and the points at which traditions weigh the answers differently.

The big idea

A claim about a ritual or object can be tested by five questions. What is the earliest source? What is its date? Which doctrine does the practice express, and is that doctrine taught by the church? What authority approves or governs it? What are its consequences for those who practice it? The method does not decide whether a practice is good. It helps decide what kind of practice it is and how much weight a claim about it can bear. Churches weigh the answers differently, and a fair user of the method says so.

Key terms

Primary source
A text or object from the time under study, such as a liturgy, letter, council decree or inscription.
Secondary source
A later account or study that interprets primary sources, such as a scholarly article or reference work.
Terminus post quem and ante quem
Latin for the earliest and latest dates between which a text must have been written.
Tradition (established)
A practice with documented early use, a stated meaning and ongoing endorsement by a church.
Later development
A practice that arose after the earliest period and whose date can be traced, but that is accepted by a church.
Unsupported claim
A statement about origin, power or effect that cannot be traced to reliable sources or to church teaching.
Argument from silence
Concluding that something did not exist because no source mentions it. It is a weak argument when the sources are few.

Background

Christian writers have always tested claims. Paul urged believers to prove all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21), and Jesus said that a tree is known by its fruit (Matthew 7:16). The Fathers distinguished apostolic tradition from local custom, and Vincent of Lerins in the fifth century proposed a rule of believing what has been held everywhere, always and by all, which was meant as a guide for doctrine and has been much debated. Historians of liturgy today use similar tools in a more exact form.

The five questions that follow are not a formula that gives certain answers. They organize the evidence. They work best when used honestly, including when the result is uncomfortable for one’s own tradition.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: Source

Ask where the earliest evidence is. Is it a document, an inscription, an object or a later report? Who wrote it and why? A source close to the event is stronger than one that comes centuries later. Be careful with sources that say a practice began with an apostle, because this may express belief and not evidence. When no early source can be found, say so, and do not fill the gap with a story.

Step 2: Date

Ask when the source was written, and when the practice is first attested. The date of a manuscript may be much later than the date of composition. Many early texts, such as the Apostolic Tradition or the Didache, have disputed dates. State a range. Do not turn a claim that a practice is attested by the fourth century into one that it began in the fourth century, or one that it began with the apostles. A practice is at least as old as its earliest source and may be older, but this cannot be assumed.

Step 3: Doctrine

Ask what the practice is meant to express. Does it embody a doctrine taught by the church, such as the Trinity, the Incarnation or the hope of the resurrection? Does a church’s official teaching state this, in a catechism, a creed, a liturgical text or a council? Be careful that a symbolic meaning given later is not read back into the earliest use. A practice may arise for one reason and acquire other meanings.

Step 4: Authority

Ask who approves or governs the practice. In Catholic and Orthodox teaching authority lies with bishops and councils and with the liturgical tradition. In Lutheran and Anglican teaching the church may keep what does not contradict Scripture. In Reformed teaching the standard is Scripture. Free churches look to the congregation and Scripture. The method does not say which of these is right. It asks the user to name the authority that a particular practice relies on, and to ask whether that authority actually endorses it.

Step 5: Consequence

Ask what the practice does in people’s lives. Does it deepen prayer, charity and honesty, or does it breed fear, pride, dependence on a seller or neglect of duties? Does it promise results that no church promises? Jesus’ test of fruit applies here. A harmless custom of uncertain origin is not the same as a harmful claim of certain power. Consequences are evidence, but they do not prove truth. A false claim can have good effects, and a true teaching can be abused.

Step 6: A worked example, the sign of the cross

Source: Tertullian, in a work on the soldier’s crown from about 211, says that Christians at every step and movement trace the sign on the forehead. Date: the evidence reaches back to about 200, with later writers describing the form in detail. The practice is probably older than Tertullian, but the sources do not allow certainty. Doctrine: it expresses faith in the Cross and, in the later form with the Trinitarian words, in the Trinity. The details vary, since the Orthodox use three fingers joined and move from right shoulder to left, and Western Christians move from left to right. Authority: Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Lutherans use it (Luther’s Small Catechism recommends it in morning and evening prayers), and many Reformed and Baptist Christians do not, because Scripture does not command it. Consequence: harmless as a prayer gesture and a witness, though not a charm. Result: an established tradition with documented use from about 200, not a command of Scripture.

  1. What is the earliest source, and can I read it myself?
  2. What is its date, and how certain is that date?
  3. What does the practice mean, and who says so?
  4. Which authority approves it, and is that authority the one the practitioner relies on?
  5. What happens to people who practice it?
  6. What would change my conclusion?

Examples

A letter from heaven

A paper circulates claiming to be a letter written by Christ, promising protection to all who copy it. Source: no early source, and similar texts appeared in the Middle Ages and were condemned by church authorities. Doctrine: it contradicts the church’s teaching that grace cannot be guaranteed by copying a text. Authority: none. Consequence: it exploits fear. Result: unsupported claim.

Holy water at the door

Catholic churches keep holy water at the entrance. Source: blessing of water is attested in fourth-century texts, the stoup at the door developing later. Doctrine: a reminder of baptism. Authority: approved by the Catholic Church as a sacramental. Consequence: a prompt to prayer. Result: a later development, now an established devotion within one tradition.

A claim about Christmas trees

A pamphlet says that Christmas trees were condemned by Jeremiah 10. The method asks for the source of the claim and for the context of Jeremiah 10, which concerns idols made from wood, and not decorated trees. Result: the claim is not supported by the text.

Different perspectives

Catholic

Both Scripture and tradition are sources of teaching, and the magisterium judges practices. The method fits with this: early evidence is valuable, but development is also legitimate when consistent with doctrine.

Orthodox

Tradition is the continuing life of the church, and a practice’s authority comes from its use in the liturgy and acceptance by the fathers and councils. Orthodox users of the method note that the age of a practice is a sign of acceptance, though not the sole one.

Lutheran and Anglican

Scripture is the norm, and practices not contrary to it may be kept. The method helps to separate adiaphora from teaching.

Reformed and free-church

Scripture alone is the final test, so the question of doctrine and authority weighs heavily. Early evidence is useful but does not make a practice binding.

Scholarly

Historians advise caution about origins, require dated sources and call for a clear separation of what a text says from what later tradition reads into it. Their method does not decide questions of truth in faith.

Why it matters

Without a method, a student is left to accept whatever a speaker says confidently or to reject whatever seems odd. The five questions give a way to slow down and ask for reasons. They protect against fraud, against sectarian pride and against the opposite error of dismissing old practices without looking at them. They also lead to the last two lessons, which apply the method to cases and to the question of respect.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: If a practice is old, it must be apostolic.

Correction: Age is evidence of use, not of apostolic origin. The method asks for the earliest source and dates it.

Misunderstanding: If a practice is not in the Bible, it is false.

Correction: Only some traditions hold this. The method treats the question of authority separately and asks each tradition’s own standard.

Misunderstanding: The method proves whether a practice is true religion.

Correction: It classifies a practice and tests claims about it. It does not decide whether God works through it, which is a matter of faith.

Misunderstanding: A good result shows that a practice is true.

Correction: Consequences are evidence about effects, not about the truth of claims. Good effects can accompany mistaken beliefs.

Knowledge check

List the five questions of the method.

What is the earliest source? What is its date? Which doctrine does the practice express and is it taught by the church? What authority approves or governs it? What are its consequences for those who practice it?

What did the worked example show about the sign of the cross?

It is documented from about 200, expresses faith in the Cross and later the Trinity, is used by Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Lutherans, is harmless as a gesture, and is an established tradition, not a command of Scripture. Forms differ between East and West.

Why should an argument from silence be used with care?

Because early sources are few, the lack of a mention does not prove that a practice did not exist. It shows only that the evidence is lacking, and the conclusion should be stated that way.

Name the four classes into which the method sorts a practice.

Established tradition, later development, popular piety and unsupported claim. A practice may fall in more than one class.

Think it through

  1. Which of the five questions is hardest to answer honestly about your own practices?
  2. How should a church weigh early evidence against later development?
  3. What kind of evidence would change your mind about a practice you value?
  4. Is it fair to apply the same method to the practices of every tradition?

Independent assignment

A one-page test

In your own notebook, write about 500 words. Choose one practice, such as the sign of the cross, the use of candles, the Advent wreath or fasting on Fridays. Answer the five questions with sources, name the class into which it falls, and state what would count as evidence against your conclusion. Do not send this to anyone.

Further study