What is Christian tradition?

Over the next several months, we are building the foundation of this site. Working with venerable and early scholars as well as students in congregations, colleges, seminaries, and the web, we hope to create a resource that both ancient and modern. 

What is christiantradition.org?

What is christian tradition?

We will ask students, scholars, and the public basic questions about what is Christian tradition and how do we know it.

What is Christian tradition?

What are the five most influential thinkers, movements or events?

What sources do you use to share or explore Christian tradition?

To answer these questions yourself or help us in our exploration, contribute a submission. 

Our Goals for the Next Year

Provide easy and open access to resources on the question of “What is Christian Tradition and how do we know it?”

Solicit contributions—in the form of short interviews, surveys, and recommended sources—from both senior scholars and newer voices

Build a network of contributors to expand the identified sources from the prominent scholars as well as significant figures and groups who may be neglected in current scholarship.

Provide an open-access platform which includes the work and sources of renowned scholars from different religious, theological, cultural, and academic backgrounds.

Collect and share essays from established scholars, new scholars, historical primary texts, and sources for reliable and accessible historical information.

Share an array of academic and theological resources for learning in both traditional and non-traditional education settings.

Our Goal for the Future

Create a website that provides all the necessary content for teaching an introductory course on the history of “Christian Tradition” to multiple levels of students. Essays from renowned thinkers can be supplemented with their treasured primary texts, music, and art.

Contributions & Content from Voices Old and Young 

Prominent Scholars
We will be asking scholars and leaders from different religious traditions and academic fields to share essays and sources. Their essays will be published on the site along with sources for who they think are the most significant thinkers, movements, and events in Christian Tradition. In turn, we will work to integrate their responses into a timeline with traditional sources and create a primary source book that can build upon traditional collections.

Young Scholars
A substantial part of this project will build networks and collaboration amongst younger and early career scholars. We are forming an editorial board as well as a list of ongoing contributors who will help identify a diverse pool of major contributors as well as make contributions themselves. The hope is to provide support for younger and under-represented scholars  and  develop a sense of  community amongst the myriad of disciplines who define and redefine “Christian tradition.”

Contributions from Students
Undergraduate and Seminary students will be participating in a class based around different interpretations of Christian traditions. Their explorations, sources, research, and essays will be shared on this site along side the prominent and young scholars. 

Contributions from Church Communities
We will also be leading discussions and sharing the questions on this site with different church communities, seeking to learn what questions they have and interpretations of tradition they have to share. 

Primary Text Sourcebook with more than traditional texts

Timeline
Taking all of the figures, movements, and events referenced by the contributors, we will make a combined timeline with links to more resources as well as the essays about them that are shared by contributors. One method of using this and building possible sub-timelines would be something like http://timline.knightlab.com.

Primary Text Source Book
Through the collection of primary texts in association with the identified thinkers, we will also provide a diverse sourcebook of the history of Christian Tradition. Through the collaboration of the various contributors, we hope to provide a diverse list of sources that could be used on their own or as a supplement to more traditional primary text sources.

Art & Music
Many approaches to church history and tradition draw on primarily textual sources. We will also reach out to musical, archeological, and artistic theologians to identify other sources of Christian tradition.

Tools for Historical Research
Regularly updated lists of reliable sources for the study of Christian tradition and history. This will include links to existing open-access resource collections, journals and databases available through libraries, and guides for understanding different types of sources.

Links to Denominations & Themes
Through collecting and cross-referencing the various contributions, we will draw together the different threads to address major themes, social concerns, and denominational issues. Over time, we hope to develop these into full sub-sites that allow greater contributions from religious leaders, scholars, and members of those religious traditions to explore and share together.