Central to the debate surrounding the sola scriptura principle of historic Protestantism was the Roman Catholic Church's official response to it through the Council of Trent's declaration regarding Scripture and Tradition. The Council underscored truths and rules "contained in the written books and in the unwritten traditions, which, received by the Apostles from the mouth of Christ Himself, or from the Apostles themselves, the Holy Ghost dictating, have come down to us, transmitted as it were from hand to hand" (italics added for emphasis).
The Dual Source Theory
This, however, was simply a reaffirmation of Roman Catholicism's long-held theological formula that highlights the written books (i.e., the Scriptures) and the unwritten tradition as sources of authority, otherwise called as the "dual source" theory of special revelation.
While this decree of the "dual source" theory as purported by the Council of Trent has been questioned by some Roman Catholic theologians themselves, the Roman Catholic Church at large has nonetheless endorsed it all the more through the First and Second Vatican Councils along with a number of papal encyclicals (e.g., Pope John XXIII's Ad Petri Cathedram). More often than not, tradition has been appealed to by Roman Catholics to validate theological formulations that divide the Church of Rome from the churches of the Reformation.
The Sola Scriptura Principle
At the other side of this great theological divide is of course historic Protestantism's sola scriptura principle. Not a few church historians believe this principle was first affirmed by Martin Luther in 1518, roughly a year after the publication of his 95 theses, when he met the Dominican Cardinal Cajetan, who at the time held the reputation of being the best among Roman Catholic theologians. Right at this meeting, Luther denied before the Cardinal the doctrine of papal infallibility, asserting that popes could err and had actually acted contrary to Scripture. About two years later in 1519, John Eck was able to manipulate Luther to publicly declare this position. Luther later had it reaffirmed at the Diet of Worms in 1521, proclaiming his commitment to biblical authority.
Other Protestant reformers followed Luther in this regard, proclaiming the sufficiency of Scripture as the final authority in matters pertaining to man's salvation, the fundamentals of the faith and the practice of that faith in life. This, however, does not mean that the Protestant reformers rejected everything that ecclesiastical tradition has to offer. It must be noted further that the general councils of the Church such as those of Nicea, Ephesus, Chalcedon and Constantinople occupy a very special place in historic Protestant tradition. Moreover, the Protestant reformers themselves took much of their theological insights from the Church Fathers.
However, for the Protestant reformers, and for the rest of historic Protestantism, no church council, synod, theologian or early church fathers are to be regarded as infallible. The Scripture alone is infallible, and for that matter, only the Scripture has the final authority in matters pertaining to man's salvation, faith and practice, so they maintained.
References:
- Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church - Volume VII. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1995.
- Schroeder, H. J. Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent. St. Louis: Herder, 1941.
- Sproul, R. C. "Sola Scriptura: Crucial to Evangelicalism" in James Montgomery, ed., The Foundation of Biblical Authority. London & Glasgow: Pickering and Inglis, 1979.
Edwin Vargas - Edwin joined the faculty of Conservative Baptist Seminary – Asia as lecturer in Systematic Theology and New Testament Survey after ...
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