T H E Role of Tradition I N Modern and Contemporary Theology: Mediating Epistemic Divides

It is not inappropriate to understand the modern and postmodern periods in the West as representing two moments of intellectual revolution. The modern era was spawned by an intellectual revolution that upset the assumptions of medieval philosophy just as postrnodernism in the contemporary period is founded on an intellectual outlook that challenges the assumptions of modern categories.' In this sense, both periods correspond to sigmficant paradigm shifts in Western intellectual traditi~n.~ By the nature of the case, theological reflection as an intellectual activity in each period is correspondingly impacted, thus malung it possible to distinguish a characteristically modern theology from contemporary theology. In each of these periodic shifts, the question of epistemology comes to center stage, although, as should be expected, an epistemological change signals a corresponding ontological adj~stment.~ From a theological perspective, the paradigmatic shift during the modern period was from the view that has been characterized as extrinsicism, to the developing school of histori~ism.~ Epistemologically, extrinsicism stressed the place of &vine revelation as the sole source of truth that owed nothing to history, except for the fact that it was given to the believers once and for all at a given point in history. Of course, ths view did not preclude internal development through systematization to ensure clarity.5 On the other hand, hstoricism reduced the realm of truth to hstory, maintaining, "all truth, includmg that of the Christian faith, must submit to the judgment of hi~tory."~ In so doing, historicism was claiming the right to treat Christian doctrine as a matter of pure history and thereby subject it to critical