tradition

The passing down of a body of established practices, customs, and beliefs from one generation to the next.

The term was originally applied by early Christian theologians to those central beliefs that were to be handed down through instruction. A tradition often commands respect simply through the authority of long usage. It usually represents the norm and is therefore especially admired by the conservative, while being reviled by the radical as inimical to change. In fact only the strictest beliefs fail to see tradition as a growing and cumulative process and only the most extreme revolutions have attempted to sever all connections with the past.