When Tradition Fails

Female genital mutilation (see the NYTimes article interestingly titled, "A Cutting Tradition") seems to be a clear case of the failure or disintegration of tradition. It calls for the need to be able to critique tradition--to be able to call particular practices of a tradition wrong.

If we agree that tradition cannot be critiqued from a sort of Enlightenment perspective that purportedly comes from within no tradition (from a universal perspective that we get at through pure, unadulterated reason), then we are left with only the ability to critique a tradition from within that tradition (although this critique may include drawing on the insights of other traditions as Eliot did when he turned, for example, to the Bhagavad Gita).

If we can only get to the universal through the particular, then perhaps we must hope that within every tradition is the potential for correcting and purifying its tradition (in accord with truth). Additionally, this practice of passing on and adjusting tradition seems to be necessarily comprised of both philosophical/critical interaction with the tradition as well as unreflective/practical interaction with the tradition. Neither of these elements can be wanting in order for a tradition to develop and thrive.