Challenging Tradition

Do we honor the past and tradition most by challenging its role in shaping the present and future? Sometimes I think we imagine that traditions just emerge effortlessly from the stream of history. But do we forget the often difficult challenges that individuals faced in establishing their deepest convictions, which now arrive in the form of long standing beliefs and practices. I contest that by passively receiving our traditions from the past, we fail to honor the radical and progressive nature that is at the heart of many traditions. This need not mean that we now reject our traditions, but rather we join in the passion of traditions by critically engaging what is handed down to us, and synthesizing and adapting such materials for a still better future. Conservatism, as understood as the mere perpetuation of tradition, may in fact be the very antithesis of what first inspired such vigor and conviction as to generate a long standing belief and practice. How are we engaging our traditions today? How does Calvin College engage its heritage of Dutch Reformed tradition in this modern context?