Abstract
Heavy is the burden of he who believes, in these modern times, that man cannot live, or at least cannot live well, without the authority and guidance of tradition. But heavier still must be the burden of he who believes, additionally, that all genuine tradition must be received unaltered and unalloyed from those who were the first to receive its truth as the revealed Word of God. For Josef Pieper, tradition must meet the latter standard, thus raising the immediate question as to whether, according to this criterion, tradition can be said to exist anywhere in the modern world. Perhaps not, if Pieper's most strict and formal definition is to be taken at its literal word.
