Traditioooooon, Tradition!

From Russian-born U.S. theologian Fr. Georges Florovsky:

"Tradition is not a principle striving to restore the past, using the past as a criterion for the present. Such a conception of tradition is rejected by history itself and by the consciousness of the Orthodox Church... Tradition is the constant abiding of the Spirit and not only the memory of words. Tradition is a charismatic, not a historical event."

At the risk of second-guessing a great theologian(!), let me just add for clarity's sake that o/Orthodox Holy Tradition is neither slavish adherence to the past as relic, nor to subjective religious emotion as a substitute for the corporate and personal indwelling of the All-Holy Spirit of God, One of the Trinity. Tradition is a verb, the "handing-down" (Latin traditio, Greek paradosis) not only of data - written or oral - but also of God Himself in His Uncreated Energies, by His Graciousness alone and none of our deserving - in fact (the Orthodox Church experiences) by the direction and action of God's Spirit. Holy Tradition is God's Life, God's Living, in the Orthodox Church ... not just theoretically, but "empirically."

"Icons as Proof of the Existence of God"

I offer this one from Fr. Stephen Freeman not because I get it, but because I don't get all of it. Let me ponder it....