Christianity has exhibited a characteristic tension toward tradition from its very beginnings. This tension, which is grounded in its essence, has been continued throughout its entire history. It began with rejecting the pious traditions of piety of the Hebrew Scriptures and synagogue practices. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus set forth his message as a renunciation of the Old Testament tradition of the Law. Yet he created a new tradition, a “new law,” that has been carried on in the church. The dogmatic controversies of the Reformation period give the impression that the tradition of the ... (100 of 126,827 words)
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Christ as Ruler, with the Apostles and Evangelists (represented by the beasts). The female figures are believed to be either Santa Pudenziana and Santa Práxedes or symbols of the Jewish and Gentile churches. Mosaic in the apse of Santa Pudenziana basilica, Rome, ad 401–417.
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Detail from Expulsion of Adam and Eve, fresco by Masaccio, c. 1427; in the Brancacci Chapel, Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence.
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Moses expounding the law, illuminated manuscript page from the Bury Bible, about 1130. In Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
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Greek Bible. Page from The Gospel According to Matthew, 6th century ad.
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Statue of Diocletian’s tetrarchy, red porphyry, c. ad 300, brought to Venice in 1258.
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Marble colossal head of Constantine the Great, part of the remains of a giant statue from the Basilica of Constantine, in the Roman Forum, c. ad 313.
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Apse of the church of St. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, Italy, second half of the 6th century.
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World distribution of Christianity, c. 2000.
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Communion of the Apostles, panel by Justus of Ghent, c. 1473–74; in the Palazzo Ducale, Urbino, Italy.
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St. Augustine, fresco by Sandro Botticelli, 1480; in the Church of the Ognissanti, Florence.