only<\/em> authoritative source?<\/p>\nThat\u2019s an idea I can get behind, and one that the Catholic Church can, too.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A brief preface before the meat of the thing.<\/p>\n
I would assert, cordially, of course, that you\u00a0must<\/em> have an interpreter of Scripture. Scripture, because it is written down, must be interpreted in some way. If I say to you, \u201cThe Blue Jays are the best team in baseball,\u201d you could ask me myriad of follow-up questions (and probably come to the conclusion that I am, sadly, incorrect). Not so with the Scriptures. Since the Scriptures are\u00a0written down<\/em> and not expressed to you by their authors directly you cannot ask those authors follow-up questions. As much as we can daydream about being able to speak to Paul about precisely what he meant by his framework for justification we, sadly, cannot.<\/p>\nWe\u00a0interpret<\/em>.<\/p>\nMost of us, but not all of us, do our best to interpret based on a number of factors and considerations. Some of the best Bible scholars, like N.T. Wright, set about a framework for interpretation that\u2019s really quite robust. But, it\u2019s a created interpretive framework, created by\u00a0us<\/em>.<\/p>\nThe notion of\u00a0sola scriptura<\/em> is that the Bible is the sole authority on matters of faith. In its original context, Martin Luther imagined this taking place in the authoritative community of his church, the Lutheran Church, as it began. Later interpretations of\u00a0sola scriptura<\/em> led reformers to understand that interpretation could be, and should be, down to each individual person. The Holy Spirit helps in the interpretation but no authority, none whatsoever, should be place above the Bible.<\/p>\nIf a particular preacher or pastor wasn\u2019t teaching from an interpretation of the Bible that I held to it was my right to leave that community and find, or even found, a new one.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to understand that\u00a0this<\/em> idea of\u00a0sola scriptura<\/em> is much more recent than that of the early reformers and has its origins tied more closely to the Puritans than the Reformers.<\/p>\nPrima scriptura<\/em>, on the other hand, asserts that the Word of God, as received through the writers of the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the epistles, is the full and total sum of the\u00a0deposit of faith<\/em>. That is, the source of our unchanging faith is found in the Bible, which was recognized and put together by the Church.<\/p>\nThe traditions of the Catholic Church, therein, are founded and grounded in the\u00a0deposit of faith<\/em> that\u2019s found in the Bible. The Church does not necessarily\u00a0teach new things<\/em> but those things have their ultimate root in Scripture.<\/p>\nJesus Christ came and lived and taught. The sum total of His teaching was transmitted, orally, to the disciples He chose who then chose new disciples and passed on this oral teaching. This much, so far, is found in the New Testament. There are clear lines of succession of apostles and the establishing of bishops; there are clear lines of authority that echo down through the Early Church Fathers, too. It is clear that early Christians understood Jesus to have founded a physical church, and they acted accordingly.<\/p>\n
These disciples eventually, some sooner than later, wrote down the teachings of Jesus; others wrote letters of instruction to their own apostles, churches, or communities. These teachings, in written form, were preserved by the apostles and\u00a0their<\/em> subsequent successors and communities and, eventually, collected together into the Bible. The Church leaders, who were direct, appointed successors of the earliest disciples of Jesus, discerned with the help of the Holy Spirit, which of the collected writings that had been passed down were God-breathed and which weren\u2019t. Those that were deemed to be orthodox and inspired were collected into the Bible we have today.<\/p>\nThis Bible, originally transmitted, then written, and collected all under the same apostolic authority, is the ultimate guide to our faith.<\/p>\n
This concept of\u00a0prima scriptura<\/em> is not without its challengers within the Catholic Church and is not without it problems but, ultimately, it\u2019s a picture of the authority of Scripture that works and a picture of authority, I think, that puts Protestants and Catholics on much more ecumenical footing. The job of the Catholic Church has been to protect and transmit the message of Jesus\u2014the deposit of faith\u2014which was collected under its guidance in the Scriptures. The Tradition<\/i>, capital T, built up through history finds its roots firmly in Scripture.<\/p>\nThe significant difference, as I see it, in a Protestant and Catholic understanding of\u00a0prima scriptura<\/em> is the Catholic Church, alone, claims the authority of apostolic succession. It was the appointed disciples of Jesus who then selected successors, who then selected successors, who then selected successors, down through history, who protected and transmitted the Bible. The Bible is the sole rule of faith, but it\u2019s in the authority and the tradition of the\u00a0Catholic<\/em> Church that this rule of faith is protected and interpreted.<\/p>\nUltimately, prima scriptura<\/em> is one way to understand the role of Scripture\u2019s authority. Is it the normal means for recognizing Scriptures authority within the Catholic Church? There\u2019s some debate about that. In the end, I have, as a Protestant, come to the conclusion that\u00a0if<\/em> Scripture is the sole rule of our faith then there must be an interpreter. I\u2019m banking, rightly or wrongly, on the interpreter that claims, historically, to be in apostolic succession from the first apostles.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s the Catholic Church that has the authority, given by Jesus, to interpret what\u00a0Scripture means unless, somewhere along the line, Jesus rescinded the promise He made to protect His church for all time. The physical church he established with the disciples, who then appointed successors, who then appointed successors\u2026<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve written a lot about\u00a0sola scriptura, the Reformation belief that Scripture\u2014the Bible\u2014is the ultimate authority on matters of faith. I\u2019ve written a lot about it because it\u2019s been one of the primary drivers of my journey towards Catholicism. In a nutshell, I don\u2019t believe that a God\u00a0who is who He says He is would leave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2332,"featured_media":315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11,55,68],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explaining-the-faith","tag-bible","tag-prima-scriptura","tag-sola-scriptura"],"yoast_head":"\n
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