traditionalism

1. Adherence to tradition, especially in cultural or religious practice.
2. A system holding that all knowledge is derived from original divine revelation and is transmitted by tradition.

adjective

Strongly favoring retention of the existing order: conservative, orthodox, right, rightist, right-wing, Tory, traditionalistic. See keep/release.

noun

One who strongly favors retention of the existing order: conservative, orthodox, rightist, right-winger, Tory. See keep/release.

Tradition originally referred to a handing over or handing down of anything, but the word came primarily to refer to the oral handing down of lore and legend. ‘Oral tradition’ is thus a tautology. In what are now called Western countries there was, therefore, for many years a distinction and potential conflict between traditional beliefs and the ‘high’, written culture of the classics and established religion. In contemporary non-Western countries there is a similar relation between local values and systems of thought and those which are imported from the West as more advanced or modern.

Traditionalists in religion (specifically in mid-nineteenth-century Roman Catholicism) held that religious truth consisted of a single revelation, the life of Christ, developed by tradition. Secular traditionalists, defined broadly, are people whose thought gives a high value to tradition. In its widest sense, tradition includes anything which is typical of the past, customary, or part of a cultural identity. It can thus include such diverse items as religious beliefs, sporting customs, linguistic practices, or dietary habits. There is, however, a distinction between two senses of traditionalism. We might say of a northern Englishman who keeps whippets and pigeons, speaks in dialect, and lives on a diet of black pudding, potato pie, and mushy peas, that ‘He's a great traditionalist’. But this kind of traditionalism might be entirely a political; the same man may have a liberal theory of taste and seek neither to promulgate nor protect his own traditional tastes for other people. In so far as he just happens to like these things and does not value them because they are traditional, then perhaps we should not call him a traditionalist at all. Traditionalism in a stronger sense therefore suggests a propensity to revive or defend traditions against non-traditional beliefs and values.

The power of political traditionalism is not to be underestimated, but usually has been. Both Marxist socialism and liberal capitalism are essentially progressive and rationalist doctrines with a limited capacity for tolerating traditional ways, but little capacity for valuing or defending them. The failures of both doctrines on the spiritual or cultural level of giving meaning to people's lives, of allowing them to experience a sense of belonging or permanent achievement, have enhanced the appeal of custom and tradition. Nationalism everywhere and religious revivalism in the developing countries are powerful expressions of traditionalism. They are paralleled in the West by weaker and less political forms, ranging from the defence of ‘real’ beer to the revival of folk music, dancing, and holiday customs.

— Lincoln Allison

The noun has 3 meanings:

Meaning #1: strict adherence to traditional methods or teachings
  Synonym: traditionality

Meaning #2: adherence to tradition (especially in cultural or religious matters)

Meaning #3: the doctrine that all knowledge was originally derived by divine revelation and that it is transmitted by traditions