Tradition

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Revelation, Covenant and Prophecy gathers thirty eight doctrines describing how traditions claim the sacred has spoken, how that speech is authenticated, and how it is carried forward once the original voice is gone.

Transmission supplies the largest cluster. Ijazah and Uwaysi transmission name two Sufi routes, a licence carrying a named chain of teachers and an initiation received from a master never met in the body; guru parampara and dharma transmission name Hindu and Buddhist teacher lineages, and terma names the Nyingma doctrine of treasures hidden by Padmasambhava and recovered when the time is right, a second channel of authority beside the ordinary oral line. Merkavah mysticism names the earliest documented Jewish mystical tradition, restricted by its own rabbinic sources to one qualified student at a time.

Finality and succession form a second thread. Finality of Prophethood, Moses as the Sole Prophet and Mani as the Final Apostle each close a line differently, mainstream Islam, Samaritan tradition and Manichaeism, and the Occultation of the Imam and Ismah name Shia doctrines of the hidden Imam and of prophetic and Imamic protection from error. The Bab as Gate and Manifestation and Yahya Yuhana as the True Teacher name Babi and Mandaean claims about who last spoke for God, and Mount Gerizim as the Place God Chose states the Samaritan alternative to Jerusalem.

Exegesis supplies method: the four senses of scripture, patristic exegesis, pesher, tafsir, nirukta and PaRDeS name six traditions' own reading disciplines. Covenant, prophecy, progressive revelation, continuing revelation, sola scriptura, the Torah alone and Torah min HaShamayim close the group on where authority sits once revelation is written down.