Tradition vs. Traditionalism

“Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.” —Jaroslav Pelikan

This quote hones in on the fundamental confusion our culture suffers from with regard to the veneration of tradition. Almost invariably, the true conservative understanding of tradition found in the first clause is misunderstood to be that of the second clause. If this is one’s misunderstanding, it is obvious why conservatism would be unappealing.

However, let me give a brief defense of tradition properly understood. “Tradition is the democracy of the dead,” Chesterton famously tells us. It is that which arose from past challenges, triumphs, commemorations, and even mundane exigencies. Yet it is more than that. Man is a liturgical being.

Whether this liturgy involves religion and other high ideals or mere trivial pursuits, there nonetheless remains a form and pattern to one’s life that is observable. If one does not venerate saint, author, or statesman, he will still venerate something. He will misapprehend the latest pop sensation, the object of his lust, or his desired material circumstances to be his salvation from emptiness.

It is because man is full of such obvious need for something to aspire to, to admire, to live by, and to build a character around that the conservative respects tradition. The radical reformer, ideologue, or leveler of the day does not abolish the traditional and leave a vacuum. Or at least, such a vacuum cannot remain for long.

The Jacobins of the French Revolution did not abolish religion to truly free man of any respect for tradition. Rather, they saw their own ratiocinations as the key to finding that which ought to be venerated.

Thus reason was both the mechanism to and object of veneration. This accounts for the verity of Chesterton’s dictum. Tradition has not merely the advantage of being reasonable upon reflection. It also has the weight of countless minds now gone who cultivated it to where it is now.

Certainly there can be evil and obsolete traditions. But the test of validity ought not be a rushed scrambling for necessary reasons justifying every practice. The presumption should start in favor of that which our fathers bestowed upon us.

The command of the parent may be disobeyed by the child is some cases, but we still hold to the rule that the child ought to obey commands unless powerful reasons make this impossible. In the same way, we ought to have a healthy respect for that which is passed down to us, not out of blind obedience, but out of veneration for the triumphs and travails of our forebears who bequeathed these traditions to us.