St. Vincent and Remaining Faithful to the Apostolic Message

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How does one remain faithful to the Christian faith as established by the apostles of the early church? For over two decades, I have found St. Vincent’s approach to this issue to be immensely helpful. Just recently a friend of mine, Seán McGuire, pointed out a further aspect of St. Vincent’s teaching that adds another important layer to St. Vincent’s position of such matters. 

Details of St. Vincent of Lerins are sparse. He died around 445, so he was probably born late-fourth or early-fifth century.[1] He came from a noble family in western Europe (Gaul – modern-day France), a part of the Roman Empire. He eventually joined a monastery and became a monk.
 
He was a contemporary of serious theological debates, the calling of councils, and numerous troubling and vexing church divisions. He was also a contemporary of St. Augustine, the giant of western Christian theology.
 
St. Vincent was concerned with how one can know what the true faith was as found in holy scripture, especially in the face of so many people claiming to know the “true” meaning of a text. Here is how he saw the problem in his day (taken from Commonitorium):[2]  [note, “Catholic” in this context means “universal”]
 
His well known solution was to rely on tradition as a guide, or to use his words, to go with the interpretation “that which has been believed everywhere, always and by all.” In other words, novelty was out, and faithfulness to the universal church’s traditional understanding of the text was in.
 
[6.] Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense Catholic, which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy  ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priest and doctors.
 
I have found this approach to be most helpful. As a professor I come across new readings of the biblical text all the time. My advice in such situations is to think about how they fit within the framework of that “which has been believed everywhere, always, by all.” And if they do not, then consider them suspect, and not worthy of embracing.
 
But what about developments in theology? Does that mean our understanding of theology can never advance? This is the part of St. Vincent that was introduced to me by Seán. St. Vincent also had a framework for allowing theological understanding to grow, but the fundamental theological foundations to remain untouched. 
 
[54.] But someone will say, perhaps, Shall there, then, be no progress in Christ's Church? Certainly; all possible progress. For what being is there, so envious of men, so full of hatred to God, who would seek to forbid it? Yet on condition that it be real progress, not alteration of the faith….The intelligence, then, the knowledge, the wisdom, as well of individuals as of all, as well of one man as of the whole Church, ought, in the course of ages and centuries, to increase and make much and vigorous progress; but yet only in its own kind; that is to say, in the same doctrine, in the same sense, and in the same meaning.
 
Here again this issue for St. Vincent is to remain faithful to the basic and fundamental and traditional doctrines. But at the same time a deepening of what those doctrines actually mean is good and actually expected. To use his analogy, it is like the growth of a body: “[55.] The growth of religion in the soul must be analogous to the growth of the body, which, though in process of years it is developed and attains its full size, yet remains still the same.”
 
In conclusion, in the first case, the tradition of the universal church was the arbiter of correct interpretation of scripture. In the second case, increased understanding of doctrine was good, but that growth should not mean a departure from the original doctrine.
 
Of course, St. Vincent’s wisdom (some say “rules”) do not solve all problems of divergent views within the church. But I would argue they are a helpful starting point for those seeking to remain faithful to the teachings of the early church. And for those who say just reading their Bible is enough, St. Vincent would say read your Bible but read it with the larger church tradition as a guide. 


[1] Thomas G. Guarino, Vincent of Lerins and the Development of Christian Doctrine. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013).
[2] https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3506.htm