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Tradition and Apocalypse

An Essay on the Future of Christian Belief

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Tradition and Apocalypse

Written by: David Bentley Hart
Narrated by: Jim Denison
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About this listen

In the 2,000 years that have elapsed since the time of Christ, Christians have been as much divided by their faith as united, as much at odds as in communion. And the contents of Christian confession have developed with astonishing energy. How can believers claim a faith that has been passed down through the ages while recognizing the real historical contingencies that have shaped both their doctrines and their divisions?

In this carefully argued essay, David Bentley Hart critiques the concept of "tradition" that has become dominant in Christian thought as fundamentally incoherent. He puts forth a convincing new explanation of Christian tradition, one that is obedient to the nature of Christianity not only as a "revealed" creed embodied in historical events but as the "apocalyptic" revelation of a history that is largely identical with the eternal truth it supposedly discloses. Hart shows that Christian tradition is sustained not simply by its preservation of the past, but more essentially by its anticipation of the future. He offers a compelling portrayal of a living tradition held together by apocalyptic expectation - the promised transformation of all things in God.

©2022 David Bentley Hart (P)2022 Tantor Christianity History Ministry & Evangelism Theology Tradition
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dbh lays out the problem of tradition as an objective reality which exists wholly in the past and brings us closer to an awareness that for tradition to be anything, and it is certainly not nothing, it must be a living being.

another movement away from a dead world of objects

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