Sola scriptura

For the album by Neal Morse, see Sola Scriptura (album).
According to the doctrine of sola scriptura, Scripture is the only infallible authority for the Christian Church, due to its unique nature as a divinely inspired text.
Five solae of the
Protestant Reformation
Sola scriptura
Sola fide
Sola gratia
Solus Christus
Soli Deo gloria

Sola scriptura (Latin for 'by scripture alone') is a Christian theological doctrine held by most Protestant Christian denominations, in particular the Lutheran and Reformed traditions,[1][2] that posits the Bible as the sole infallible source of authority for Christian faith and practice.[2] The Catholic Church considers it heresy and generally the Orthodox churches consider it to be contrary to the phronema of the Church.

While the scriptures' meaning is mediated through many kinds of subordinate authority—such as the ordinary teaching offices of a church, the ecumenical creeds, councils of the Catholic Church, or even personal special revelation—sola scriptura in contrast rejects any infallible authority other than the Bible.[2] In this view, all non-scriptural authority is derived from the authority of the scriptures or is independent of the scriptures, and is, therefore, subject to reform when compared to the teaching of the Bible.

Sola scriptura is a formal principle of many Protestant Christian denominations, and one of the five solae.[2] It was a foundational doctrinal principle of the Protestant Reformation held by many of the Reformers, who taught that authentication of Scripture is governed by the discernible excellence of the text, as well as the personal witness of the Holy Spirit to the heart of each man.

By contrast, the Protestant traditions of Anglicanism, Methodism and Pentecostalism uphold the doctrine of prima scriptura,[3][4] with scripture being illumined by tradition and reason. The Methodists thought reason should be delineated from experience, though the latter was classically filed under the former and guided by reason, nonetheless this was added, thus changing the "Anglican Stool" to the four sides of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.[5] The Eastern Orthodox Church holds that to "accept the books of the canon is also to accept the ongoing Spirit-led authority of the church's tradition, which recognizes, interprets, worships, and corrects itself by the witness of Holy Scripture".[6] The Catholic Church officially regards tradition and scripture as equal, forming a single deposit, and considers the magisterium as the living organ which interprets said deposit.[7] The Roman magisterium thus serves Tradition and Scripture as "one common source [...] with two distinct modes of transmission",[8] while some Protestant authors call it "a dual source of revelation".[9]

Many Protestants want to distinguish the view that scripture is the only rule of faith with the exclusion of other sources (nuda scriptura), from the view taught by Luther and Calvin that the scripture alone is infallible, without excluding church tradition in its entirety, viewing them as subordinate and ministerial.[10][11][12][13][14]

  1. ^ "Sola Scriptura?". WELS Topical Q&A. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. 15 May 2006. Retrieved 26 May 2024. [M]any passages...state sola scriptura, such as Revelation 22:18-19. If we cannot add anything to the words of Scripture and we cannot take anything away from them, that is Scripture alone.
  2. ^ a b c d Wisse, Maarten (2017). "PART I: Systematic Perspectives – Contra et Pro Sola Scriptura". In Burger, Hans; Huijgen, Arnold; Peels, Eric (eds.). Sola Scriptura: Biblical and Theological Perspectives on Scripture, Authority, and Hermeneutics. Studies in Reformed Theology. Vol. 32. Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 19–37. doi:10.1163/9789004356436_003. ISBN 978-90-04-35643-6. ISSN 1571-4799.
  3. ^ "Methodist Beliefs: In What Ways Are Lutherans Different from United Methodists?". Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. Archived from the original on 22 May 2014. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
  4. ^ Humphrey 2013, p. 16.
  5. ^ Schmidt 2002, p. 15; Waltz 1991.
  6. ^ Nassif 2004, p. 65.
  7. ^ Flinn 2007, pp. 431–33.
  8. ^ CCC, 80–81.
  9. ^ Johnson & Webber 1993, p. 43.
  10. ^ Carson, D. A. (27 January 2015). Themelios, Volume 36, Issue 2. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-7252-3466-6.
  11. ^ Dockery, David S.; Massey, James Earl; Smith, Robert Jr (20 April 2018). Worship, Tradition, and Engagement: Essays in Honor of Timothy George. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-4982-9850-6.
  12. ^ Strange, Daniel (8 May 2015). 'For Their Rock is not as Our Rock': An Evangelical Theology Of Religions. Inter-Varsity Press. ISBN 978-1-78359-374-3.
  13. ^ Barrett, Matthew (16 June 2017). "'Sola Scriptura' Radicalized and Abandoned". The Gospel Coalition. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  14. ^ Treier, Daniel J. (2007), Treier, Daniel J.; Larsen, Timothy (eds.), "Scripture and hermeneutics", The Cambridge Companion to Evangelical Theology, Cambridge Companions to Religion, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 35–50, ISBN 978-0-521-84698-1, retrieved 25 June 2022