{"id":4968,"date":"2022-03-17T01:13:54","date_gmt":"2022-03-17T01:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=4968"},"modified":"2022-03-17T01:18:25","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T01:18:25","slug":"whatever-happened-to-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2022\/03\/17\/whatever-happened-to-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"Whatever Happened to Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Old Way is the Cool Way<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Tradition gives us a story, and therefore, a moral framework of what to do and how to act.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Review by Alex Sosler<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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I\u2019m a millennial. This is part fact and part confession.<\/p>

I came of age with tradition burned over. Not only were authority and institutions untrustworthy, but I hardly remember them at all. I felt abandoned by the past\u2014more like it didn\u2019t exist than I consciously rejected it.<\/p>

There stereotype for millennials is that we are anti-tradition. With the self in place as the solid center of the world, things revolve around us more than we\u2019ll submit to any historical standard. We\u2019re entitled, soft, etc., etc., blah, blah. Perhaps that\u2019s true. (Though I doubt the genius of generational thinking<\/a> in the first place).<\/p>

A few years ago, James K. A. Smith presented a lecture on Augustine for our post-modern age<\/a>. Our modern age, he described, is akin to swimming laps in an above ground pool. You take a stroke or two, hit the edge, and turn around. These limits seem so restricting and defining. Longing for freedom, it may be tempting to bowl down the sides of the pool\u2014thinking this will bring you the limitless autonomy so desired. What you get instead is a flooded yard and no more swimming.<\/p>

I woke up in the muddy grass. Allow me to explain: I was lost as I tried to find meaning and purpose and happiness by myself. In my youth, I searched high and low for wise guides and mentors to help. I remember feeling helpless and wanted to take whatever assistance I could get. It\u2019s tough in the modern, millennial streets.<\/p>

As a college professor, I float in the waves of young people. The general aura of my students is one of aimlessness and lostness\u2014much like I felt myself as a college student but probably more intense. My students are filled with anxious angst, and they have no roots or stability. I can relate at the same time I mourn. Their eyes change when I talk about purpose and direction\u2014I can see them longing for something they don\u2019t know how to find. They need tradition and trustworthy guides. If I woke up in the muddy yard, they woke up when the ground dried a bit. There\u2019s a semblance of an outline of a pool in the yard, but I\u2019m not even sure they know where to look for limits and stability. They\u2019re drifting and lost at sea with no island in sight. They don\u2019t even know how to use a compass.<\/p>

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If there\u2019s anything our age needs, it\u2019s a generous and charitable people. For that, we may just need some tradition.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Tim Stanley\u2019s Whatever Happened to Tradition: History, Belonging and the Future of the West <\/em>is both thoroughly informative and occasionally humorous. Stanley attempts to define and promote the unpopular idea of tradition. His aim is not to convince us of his tradition nor is the book a nostalgic dream of some golden age in the past. Rather, he wishes to \u201cstress the ways in which tradition can be useful to those looking for ballast, which I think a lot of us are\u201d (8). If I have a pulse on my students, this is a worthy goal, and one that resonates with young people.<\/p>

According to Stanley, a robust tradition has three characteristics. First, it ties the individual to collective. Rather than being atomic individuals, we all inherit systems of family, thought, and culture. These connect us with past generations and give us something to pass on to the next. Second, tradition imposes order on the way we behave. It\u2019s something akin to Alasdair MacIntyre\u2019s \u201cI can only answer the question of \u2018What am I to do?\u2019, if I can answer the prior question \u2018Of what story or stories am I a part?\u2019\u201d Tradition gives us a story, and therefore, a moral framework of what to do and how to act. Lastly, a good tradition affects how a human experiences time. Alan Jacobs argues something similar in Breaking Bread with the Dead<\/em><\/a>. One\u2019s historical consciousness affects one\u2019s ability to understand and live in the moment. you are only living in the news cycle or Twitter feed, you won\u2019t have stability to navigate the current world..<\/p>

I\u2019ve always felt split between tradition and innovation. On one hand, Wendell Berry seems like a generational wise sage, and he rejects most modern innovations (imagine never owning a computer<\/a>). At the same time, I\u2019m sympathetic to a more culturally engaged innovation. To borrow Andy Crouch\u2019s distinctions<\/a>, we need to create culture rather than merely consume or critique it.<\/p>

Stanley\u2019s book resolved my split desires. A few times, he discusses the power and purpose of craft. In craft, the ideal labor is skilled and talented, aimed at collective gain under guilds rather than personal profit through ingenuity. Craft is traditioned, yet good craftsmen advance their craft forward. For craftsmen, work is done, if not in the home, then nearby. The unit of family matters most rather than individual economic units.<\/p>

I\u2019ve long been interested in craft. My barber in Austin and my plumber in Asheville exhibit a deep understanding of the tradition of their trades, a concern to do the job well, a care for the person involved, and yet an adaption to the best practices of the day. As such, concern for craft is not a longing for return to some imagined golden age, but a historical understanding that allows you to do your job well in today\u2019s world.<\/p>

However, there were few questions the book raised for me. In defending tradition, Stanley argues that history bends toward justice: \u201cThis implies that there is an almost Darwinian quality to tradition, that the most attractive and useful\u2014the fittest\u2014survive, and that while fundamentalism is rigid and sterile, tradition outlasts it precisely because it demonstrates adaption and growth\u201d (28). While I hope that\u2019s the case, it\u2019s hard to know when to measure. Tradition waxes and wanes between health and unhealth, and without a standard to measure tradition against, it\u2019s hard to know if the \u201cfittest\u201d does survive.<\/p>

Second, I was not clear on the relationship between freedom and individualism. Here\u2019s what I mean: we live in a world where liberalism has fostered individuals who believe they can be whatever they want to be. We\u2019re never content with our life but always pursuing some greater thing we ought to become\u2014and we are free to do it. No one can stop you. Stanley argues that this Enlightenment liberalism is the root of most of our problems. And I tend to agree.<\/p>

But in response to a lecture by Stanley Hauerwas<\/a>, philosopher Zena Hitz argues for the benefits of liberalism. In a world prone to tyranny, liberalism isn\u2019t perfect but it\u2019s the best thing we got. The alternative is a tyrant or the state taking over our choices, so individual freedom ought to be preserved, so that dissent can war against oppressing power. (Full disclosure: I still don\u2019t know who I agree with).<\/p>

The hard thing about a book that defends tradition is that, more than likely, it will be read primarily by people who are already sympathetic to tradition. The final lines of the book are a call for a revolution to the classical liberalitas<\/em>: not freedom but generosity. And if there\u2019s anything our age needs, it\u2019s a generous and charitable people. For that, we may just need some tradition.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Alex Sosler<\/strong>\u00a0is Assistant Professor of Bible and Ministry at Montreat College near Asheville, North Carolina, deacon at Redeemer Anglican Church, husband to Lauren, and dad to Mariela, Auden, and Jude. His writing has been featured in <\/em>Front Porch Republic,\u00a0<\/em>Fathom Magazine,\u00a0<\/em>Mockingbird, and <\/em>Christ and Pop Culture.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Whatever Happened to Tradition<\/strong> was published by Bloomsbury on December 14, 2021.<\/em> Fare Forward\u00a0appreciates their provision of a review copy. You can purchase your own copy on their website here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tradition gives us a story, and therefore, a moral framework of what to do and how to 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