I can only speak for the mainline tradition.*
The mainline churches largely follow the traditional Anglican three-legged stool: Scripture, reason, and tradition.
We do theology in a community, and pay attention to the past, so we do honor tradition. We do believe that the Spirit guides the Church.
We believe that God revealed himself in history, of which Scripture is our primary witness. So our community is guided by Scripture.
But unlike the Catholic tradition, we realize that traditions can err, or situations can change. Often changes happen because of new Scriptural scholarship, but sometimes also because of scientific or historical discoveries. Hence reason.
I would say that the mainline churches maintain a reasonably coherent tradition. We don’t agree on all subjects, but there’s still pretty obviously a single theological community. In many areas we share this community with modern Catholicism. The main differences lie in areas where the Catholic commitment to inerrant tradition cause them to hold on to things that we think they would be better off to change.
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* Mainline is probably an American term. See Mainline Protestant - Wikipedia
The mainline churches largely follow the traditional Anglican three-legged stool: Scripture, reason, and tradition.
We do theology in a community, and pay attention to the past, so we do honor tradition. We do believe that the Spirit guides the Church.
We believe that God revealed himself in history, of which Scripture is our primary witness. So our community is guided by Scripture.
But unlike the Catholic tradition, we realize that traditions can err, or situations can change. Often changes happen because of new Scriptural scholarship, but sometimes also because of scientific or historical discoveries. Hence reason.
I would say that the mainline churches maintain a reasonably coherent tradition. We don’t agree on all subjects, but there’s still pretty obviously a single theological community. In many areas we share this community with modern Catholicism. The main differences lie in areas where the Catholic commitment to inerrant tradition cause them to hold on to things that we think they would be better off to change.
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* Mainline is probably an American term. See Mainline Protestant - Wikipedia
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