January 2011: Tradition in a Modern World

• About This Issue: Tradition in a Modern World

Lead Essay

• Traditionalism in a Changing World by Russell Arben Fox.

  In this month’s lead essay, communitarian political theorist Russell Arben Fox considers the role of tradition in orienting, or perhaps even in fashioning, the individual. Tradition is under assault, we are told, by market forces, global integration, and the ubiquitous media. Marxist and postmodern thinkers have even suggested that under such conditions, all traditions must be somewhat inauthentic — the product of conscious fashioning, and, thus, not really a tradition at all. At times, traditionalists have called for group rights and group protections in an attempt to prevent commerce from eroding tradition, and thus, they hope, they can avoid the postmodern critique entirely.

  But traditions have always been subject to re-invention and re-interpretation, Fox argues. The supposedly new challenge of liberal commercial society is neither new nor even much of a challenge. Traditions are and always have been opportunities for creativity, appropriation, and self-conscious cultural critique. The political implications of traditionalism may be considerably fewer than traditionalists or their critics appreciate.

Response Essays

• Beyond Liberalism by Eve Tushnet

Eve Tushnet argues that liberalism has tended to strip away traditions in a very troubling fashion. “One of the most challenging cultural tasks we face now,” she writes “is to put flesh and costume back on traditions which have been stripped almost to the skeleton.” At the very least, she argues, traditions fill an important gap in the liberal project. Where liberalism values reason, material comfort, and autonomy, tradition helps us make sense of life’s more senseless and painful aspects. Tradition helps us to understand and, yes, to obey deserving authority. Given that it is human nature to experience frustration and constraint, tradition promises solace, connection to others, and even transcendence.

• Tradition Needs Preservation by John Fea

John Fea notes the peculiar place of tradition in American political culture. The United States was the first country self-consciously founded on Enlightenment principles. As such it called many traditions into question. Tom Paine urged his fellow citizens to “begin the world anew.” As a result, progress and tradition are constantly in tension in American political culture. To preserve national traditions from a “cultural holocaust,” Fea defends government funding for historical sites, museums, and other aspects of our heritage.

• Tradition in the Age of Equality by James Poulos

James Poulos argues that what’s eroding tradition today isn’t commercialism or secularization. It’s equality. The democratic ideal of equality is also in some senses a Christian ideal, too. But it often calls into question traditions that presuppose social hierarchy. Traditions emphasizing inequality or privilege have fared badly, while traditions emphasizing equality have flourished. Poulos draws on Friedrich Nietzsche and Alexis de Tocqueville to ask a very large question: Does the vital core of traditional Christian social thought survive? Or is God really dead in the age of equality? Traditional marriage is offered as an example.

The Conversation

• Response to Tushnet: Traditions, Same-Sex Marriage, and Martin Luther King Jr. by Russell Arben Fox.
• Tradition and the Problem of Pride by James Poulos
• Response to Fea: Preserving Communities and Traditions by Russell Arben Fox.
• Response to Poulos: On the Authority of Tradition by Russell Arben Fox.
• Who Put the Tradition in “Traditional Marriage”? by Eve Tushnet
• Tradition’s Comedies of Error by Eve Tushnet
• Further Response to Tushnet: Who Talks about Tradition? by Russell Arben Fox.
• Tradition and American Political Life by John Fea
• Concluding Response to Fea and Others: “Tradition” vs. “Traditionalism” by Russell Arben Fox.
• Tradition and Foundations: Problems in Nature, Authority, and Equality by James Poulos