In the course of the 20th century, representatives of theological studies were always explicitly or implicitly divided into two groups, depending on their attitude towards Tradition and the Church Fathers: (1) traditionalist scholars, firmly grounded in classical late antique achievements and time-tested thought patterns, and (2) researchers who were as open as possible to modernity, unrestrained in their search for new models of theology. The mentality of the former is reflected in Christ’s words, ‘I have not come to abolish them [the Law or the Prophets] but to fulfil them’ (Matthew 5:17), while the latter justified their creative breakthroughs into new areas of thought with the Saviour’s eschatological proclamation, ‘Behold, I make all things new’ (Revelation 21:5).
In 2024, a year before the untimely death of Canadian Orthodox theologian Paul Ladouceur (1944–2025), the Greek academic journal Θεολογία published his article “Tradition, Patristic Theology and Traditionalism in Modern Orthodoxy.” This paper contains the author’s analysis of the following topics: (1) significantly different assessments of the Fathers by representatives of neo-patristic theology and the Russian religious renaissance; (2) occasional attempts by neo-traditionalists to ‘dogmatise’ patristic texts; (3) ways of Orthodox interpretation of John Henry Newman’s theory of dogmatic development; (4) a critical review of so-called ‘post-patristic theology.’
Archpriest Andrii Shymanovych reviewed the most important narrative lines of Ladouceur’s research. He also shared his own thoughts on the imperfection and incompleteness of modern theological vocabulary, given its inability to conceptually grasp and adequately reflect all the attitudes present in contemporary theological discourse regarding the degree of importance attributed to Tradition.
Fr. Shymanovych’s review #14 on the article by Paul Ladouceur is available at this link: https://www.academic-initiative.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/14_Ladouceur_reception_of_tradition.pdf (in Ukrainian)
