John C Wright has way too much fun…

dismantling the absurd myth of sola scriptura and making the common sense argument that the Bible is authoritative precisely because it is the written aspect of the Church’s apostolic tradition.

I’ve made my case for this, of course, in By What Authority? But it’s always fun to read a writer as gifted as John pointing this out.

Sola scriptura was part of a creation myth held aloft by Protestantism as long as it was a going concern. It was never so much argued (because it’s ridiculous and incoherent) as shouted, programmed, and recited like a mantra–sort of like “Great is Diana of the Ephesians!” As the Reformation cools and the forces that gave birth to it die (often at the hand of later Protestants and post-Protestant who reject the Bible as much as their fathers rejected the Church) more and more Protestants admit that it is indefensible. John, being an atheist, never had a dog in that fight and so, when he came to Christ, immediately saw the bleedin’ obvious: that the Bible is the written tradition of the Church and that it is therefore absurd to pit it against the Church.

Anyway, a fun read from the man with the Wright Stuff. Oh, and I’m particularly pleased that he ends with a favorite quote from Chesterton on the subject.