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                                                                                 On "Witness" and "Tradition"

It is clear to me that what I mean by "witness" when I speak of "the Christian witness of faith" is closely parallel to what many Christians and theologians today understand by "tradition."

By "tradition" (= traditio) they commonly mean both (1) the act of traditioning or handing on, i.e., "active tradition," or "act of tradition" (= actus tradendi), and (2) the content to be traditioned or handed on, i.e., "passive tradition" (= traditum tradendum). Correspondingly, by "witness" I mean both (1) the "that," or act, of witness and (2) its "what," or content.

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But not all traditiones are on the same level, any more than all witnesses are. Decisive, indeed, is the apostolic traditio – -- both as actus tradendi and traditum tradendum – -- that is formally normative for all other traditiones, which are themselves substantially normative only because or insofar as they are authorized by apostolic tradition. And so, too, with the many witnesses, which are substantially normative only because or insofar as they are authorized by the apostolic witness.

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