The concept of tradition and authority in science and theology with special reference to the thought of Michael Polyani

Abstract

Michael Polanyi's philosophy is one which is based on the rejection of the objectivist ideal of knowledge and its replacement by Personal Knowledge, by a conception of knowing in which the place of the personal participation of the knower in all acts of understanding is recognised. In this way the false objectivist ideal which has had such a destructive influence on our understanding of authority and tradition is replaced by an ideal which maintains that science can exist and continue to exist only because its premisses can be embodied in a tradition which is held in common by a community and interpreted, applied and affirmed on the authority of that community. This, as this thesis would maintain, is also the case in theology where the nature and inter relation of authority and tradition is of a similar structure to the role of authority and tradition in science

In tteology, as in science, to use Polarvyi's words, we must search for the truth and state our findings. We must submit ourselves to the self-authenticating authority of the Truth of God in Jesus Christ Himself. We are confronted with this Truth in the Apostolic witness, a witness which consists not simply of explicit statements but also of a 'tacit' understanding of them. This gives to the Church, built on the premisses laid By the Apostles and tacitly understanding the 'mind' of the Apostles a 'competent' authority. The teaching, traditions and doctrine of the Church must be regarded as tools to be tacitly ctsed to help us understand the intention of Scripture. Since the Apostolic Witness points 'to more than it can tell', it allows for a deepening and developing tradition where new aspects of that once for all revelation are brought to light.