The formal and the material principles of theology

The formal and the material principles of theology February 10, 2017

The “formal principle” of a particular theology is its source and authority.  The “material principle” of a theology is its central teaching, the characteristic “content” of the theology that shapes its other teachings and practices.

In the course of some research for a project I am working on, I learned that this distinction emerged out of Lutheran scholarship.  But it’s a helpful way to understand any theological tradition.

Wikipedia has an entry on the subject that lists the formal and material principles of Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, Zwinglianism, Calvinism, and Methodism.

These are taken from F. E. Mayer’s classic study The Religious Bodies of America.  I give them after the jump.

These are theologies, not church bodies, and it’s evident that various evangelicals might be “Zwinglians,” “Calvinists,” or “Methodists” (a.k.a. Arminians).  But there are still Baptist, Pentecostal, and other theologies, including popular expressions such as “the prosperity gospel.”  How would you break down their formal and material principles?

From Formal and material principles of theology – Wikipedia:

Eastern Orthodoxy

  • Formal Principle – the Bible and the “sacred tradition.”[5]
  • Material Principle – Jesus Christ’s work of theopoiesis or theosis (θέωσις), the ultimate deification of man. They cite Athanasius of Alexandria from his Incarnation of the Word: “Christ assumed humanity that we might become God.”[6]

Roman Catholicism

  • Formal Principle – the Bible, Tradition, Reason,[7] the Pope, and the Magisterium.
  • Material Principle – “Man’s soul, since it comes directly from God, is good and strives for reunion with God, realized in the beatific vision of God. Man’s body is subject to sin and is alienated from God. Therefore man must be progressively justified, i.e., be made just. This result is effected when through the sacraments man enters into the ‘state of grace’ and observes the commandments which the church… by her ‘divine commission,’ imposes upon the ‘faithful.'”[8]

Lutheranism

  • Formal Principle – the Bible alone (sola Scriptura)[9]
  • Material Principle – “a synopsis and summary of the Christian truth” that people are justified by God’s grace through faith in Christ alone.[10]

Anglicanism

  • Formal Principle in general—The Bible, the authority of the church, and reason.[11] Specifically, for individuals of different churchmanship:
  • Low Church—the Bible as the only source and the all sufficient norm of religious truth.[11]
  • High Church – “doctrinal authority rested successively in Christ, in the teaching church, in the Scriptures, and in the councils.” This is called the consensus fidelium (“agreement of the faithful”).[11]
  • Broad Church—along with the Bible and the consensus fidelium is included “God’s self-disclosure in the religious and moral development of the human race as a whole, in the religion of Israel, the person of Christ, and the life of His mystical body, the church.”[11]
  • Material Principle:
  • Low Church – “the doctrine of God’s grace which faith apprehends without the addition of human works.”[11]
  • High Church—the worship of the church and apostolic succession.[12]
  • Broad Church—a life which conforms to the ethical teachings of Jesus.[13]

Zwinglianism

  • Formal Principle – the Bible and direct revelation from the Holy Spirit.[14]
  • Material Principle – absolute divine causality.[15]

Calvinism

  • Formal Principle – the Bible as the sole standard of all truth (sola scriptura).[16]
  • Material Principle – the glory of God.[17]

Methodism

  • Formal Principle – the Bible, reason, teachings of the ancient church.[18]
  • Material Principle – the perfected man, i.e. entire sanctification.[18]

From Formal and material principles of theology – Wikipedia:

 

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