On Divine Tradition: De Divina Traditione

by Johannes Baptist Franzelin, Ryan Grant (Translation)

On Divine Tradition is one of the most important theological texts dealing with the notion of Tradition in the Church. Unlike other authors who wrote very well on the subject but tailored it to the issues of their day, such as Melchior Cano and St. Robert Bellarmine, Cardinal Franzelin wrote a treatise considering tradition in itself, and then applied the fruit of this discussion to refute the Protestant notion that Tradition is opposed to Scripture. Thus, in 26 Theses, Franzelin explains for us the notion of Tradition, where we seen tradition in history; how Scripture is also a witness to it; that Christ founded a living magisterium of witnesses to guide His Church; what is infallibility and how do we see it exercised; what are the monuments; what is the authority of the Fathers of the Church as well as the Theologians? What do we make of St. Vincent of Lerin's definition, always, everywhere and by all? Questions such as these, are treated in depth in a serious theological study considered to be classical in theological studies, which set the discussion for every other writer on the topic, even after Vatican II. Hitherto locked away in Latin, Ryan Grant (Director of the Bellarmine Translation Project) has rendered them into a good, readable English while preserving the scholastic and Thomistic language of the original, having given a great contribution to Theology which for too long has been impoverished on account of being cut off from its Latin patrimony.

Genres: Christianity, Theology, Catholic

469 pages, Paperback

Published September 17, 2016

About the author

Johannes Baptist Franzelin (b. at Aldein, in Tyrol, 15 April 1816; d. at Rome, 11 December 1886) was an Austrian Jesuit theologian and Cardinal.

Reviews

[Vagabond of Letters, DLitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

4/10 and 8/10.

On the nature of Tradition vs tradition, the authority of church, council, pope, and Scripture, and the epistemology of religious knowledge in the Catholic Church, this is the best and only game in town aside from Aquinas, who wrote prior to the Protestant revolution. Along those lines, this work is necessary reading.

Good content rated downwards on the basis of the very difficult, unidiomatic translation, which is in need of copyediting and a lot of work on English word order and idiom. I found myself referring to the actual original Latin in a pdf quite frequently to make better sense of especially obscure and ungrammatical English choices. (If you can use this as a crib for the Latin, just read the Latin. It's 'literal' enough that you could learn Latin grammar and vocab just by reading the translation and the Latin side by side.)

Further review of both the content (the half of Franzelin's book 'On Divine Tradition' of 'On Divine Tradition and Sacred Scripture' Englished by Grant) and the Englishing to come.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a fascinating read and a strong defense of Catholic Tradition—addressing both Protestant objections and what were, at the time, the early signs of modernism within the Church. It remains especially relevant today, even in the midst of the current crisis facing the Church. That said, the language can be a bit challenging at times. Some passages require slow, careful rereading due to their technical vocabulary and the older style of expression. Still, the depth and richness of the content make it well worth the effort.