Grant #6 from the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum
Christian Doctrine - Partial Indulgence
The faithful who teach or study Christian doctrine win a partial indulgence.
Definition: The special tradition of apostolic teaching handed down through the bishopric of their churches, generation after generation is called Sacred Tradition in the Roman Catholic Church.It refers
Christian Doctrine - Partial Indulgence
The faithful who teach or study Christian doctrine win a partial indulgence.
Requirements for a partial indulgence:
- The work must be done while in a state of grace and with the general intention of earning an indulgence.
Sacred Tradition
Definition: The special tradition of apostolic teaching handed down through the bishopric of their churches, generation after generation is called Sacred Tradition in the Roman Catholic Church.It refers
to the fundamental basis of church dogma.
It is the deposit of faith that is ever deepening and expanding with new doctrines being revealed, doctrines that have been preserved in The Roman Catholic Church throughout its history.It is everything that was handed down by the Apostles, everything other than the Scriptures. It helps to deepen the holiness and to increase the faith of the people of God.
The Eastern Orthodoxy terms it as Holy Tradition, and it believes that it does not expand or grow.For Roman Catholics, the Sacred Tradition is equal in authority to Scripture . It comprises of the deposit of faith in its totality.
Deposit of Faith
"depositum fidei"
: It is the saving revelation given by Jesus in its totality. It was given to the Apostles who handed it down through centuries to the Church. It includes both Scripture and Sacred Tradition.For the Roman Catholics, Sacred Tradition is an ongoing source of information From the Catechism of Catholic Church :
The Church definition of "Sacred Tradition" is: "The Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes".
The Dictionary defines it as: "Sacred Tradition or Holy Tradition is a technical theological term used in some Christian traditions, primarily in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions, to refer to the fundamental basis of church dogma. The term refers to belief that these churches hold, that the "depositum fidei", or "deposit of faith" was communicated by Jesus Christ to his first followers, and has been passed down (Latin tradere, to hand over or hand down) through succeeding generations of those followers (apostolic succession), represented by the church. The church as a community, therefore, was the initial receiver, and has remained the guardian and codifier, of Sacred Tradition.
74 God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth":29 that is, of Christ Jesus.30 Christ must be proclaimed to all nations and individuals, so that this revelation may reach to the ends of the earth:
- God graciously arranged that the things he had once revealed for the salvation of all peoples should remain in their entirety, throughout the ages, and be transmitted to all generations.31
75 "Christ the Lord, in whom the entire Revelation of the most high God is summed up, commanded the apostles to preach the Gospel, which had been promised beforehand by the prophets, and which he fulfilled in his own person and promulgated with his own lips. In preaching the Gospel, they were to communicate the gifts of God to all men. This Gospel was to be the source of all saving truth and moral discipline."32
76 In keeping with the Lord's command, the Gospel was handed on in two ways:
- orally "by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received - whether from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or whether they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit";33
- in writing "by those apostles and other men associated with the apostles who, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, committed the message of salvation to writing".34
77 "In order that the full and living Gospel might always be preserved in the Church the apostles left bishops as their successors. They gave them their own position of teaching authority."35 Indeed, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time."36
78 This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy Spirit, is called Tradition, since it is distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it. Through Tradition, "the Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes."37 "The sayings of the holy Fathers are a witness to the life-giving presence of this Tradition, showing how its riches are poured out in the practice and life of the Church, in her belief and her prayer."38
79 The Father's self-communication made through his Word in the Holy Spirit, remains present and active in the Church: "God, who spoke in the past, continues to converse with the Spouse of his beloved Son. And the Holy Spirit, through whom the living voice of the Gospel rings out in the Church - and through her in the world - leads believers to the full truth, and makes the Word of Christ dwell in them in all its richness."39
80 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture, then, are bound closely together, and communicate one with the other. For both of them, flowing out from the same divine well-spring, come together in some fashion to form one thing, and move towards the same goal."40 Each of them makes present and fruitful in the Church the mystery of Christ, who promised to remain with his own "always, to the close of the age".41
81 "Sacred Scripture is the speech of God as it is put down in writing under the breath of the Holy Spirit."42
"And [Holy] Tradition transmits in its entirety the Word of God which has been entrusted to the apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. It transmits it to the successors of the apostles so that, enlightened by the Spirit of truth, they may faithfully preserve, expound and spread it abroad by their preaching."43
82 As a result the Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, "does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence."44
83 The Tradition here in question comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus' teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit. The first generation of Christians did not yet have a written New Testament, and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living Tradition.
Tradition is to be distinguished from the various theological, disciplinary, liturgical or devotional traditions, born in the local churches over time. These are the particular forms, adapted to different places and times, in which the great Tradition is expressed. In the light of Tradition, these traditions can be retained, modified or even abandoned under the guidance of the Church's Magisterium.
Dei Verbum
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Dei Verbum
Concerning sacred Tradition and sacred Scripture
From Chapter II "Handing On Divine Revelation"
- 9. Hence there exists a close connection and communication between sacred Tradition and sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while sacred tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known. Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence.
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