Traditionalist
A Traditionalist Orthodox Christian holds very strictly to a narrowly defined understanding of Orthodox Tradition. The name tends to be self-applied. Views held by traditionalists sometimes include:
- a preference for the Old Calendar to the exclusion of the New;
- a literal understanding of patristic texts and a resulting desire to reconcile differences among the Church Fathers;
- a tendency to schism in response to inferred heresy;
- a desire to preserve the piety and theological opinions of a particular region or era, e.g., eighteenth century Russia or Greece;
- a disdain for any and all forms of ecumenism;
- a belief that the particular, narrowly defined tradition with which one identifies is true, exclusive of any other interpretations or traditions.
Since Orthodoxy holds Holy Tradition in high esteem, some Orthodox Christians take exception to the use of the term traditionalist by persons whom they consider to be extremists or fundamentalists, since it implies that those who disagree with the traditionalist are not properly traditional.
External links
- Fundamentalism on Wikipedia.
- Orthodoxy Today: Tradition or Traditionalism? by Archpriest Leonid Kishkovsky.
- Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies
- The Calendar Question by Protopresbyter Alexander Lebedeff.
