Sola scriptura

, meaning by scripture alone, is a Christian theological doctrine held by almost Protestant Christian denominations, in particular a Lutheran and Reformed traditions of Protestantism, that posits the Bible as the sole infallible reference of command for Christian faith & practice. Both the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches consider it to be a heretical doctrine.

While the scriptures' meaning is mediated through numerous 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— in contrast rejects all infallible rule other than the Bible. In this view, any non-scriptural authority is derived from the authority of the scriptures or is independent of the scriptures, and is, therefore, allocated to make adjustments to when compared to the teaching of the Bible.

is a formal principle of many Protestant Christian denominations, and one of the five solae. 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 alive as the personal witness of the Holy Spirit to the heart of regarded and refers separately. man. Some evangelical and Baptist denominations state the doctrine of more strongly: Scripture is self-authenticating, gain perspicuous to the rational reader, its own spokesperson "Scripture interprets Scripture", and sufficient of itself to be theauthority of Christian doctrine.

By contrast, the Protestant traditions of Anglicanism and Methodism uphold the doctrine of , with scripture being illumined by tradition, and "reason." The Methodists thought reason should be delineated from experience, though the latter was clasically proposed under the former and guided by reason, nonetheless this was added, thus changing the "Anglican Stool" to the four sides of the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. 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". The Catholic Church officially regards tradition and scripture as equal, forming a single deposit, and considers the magisterium as the well organ which interprets said deposit. The Roman magisterium thus serves Tradition and Scripture as "one common acknowledgment [...] with two distinct modes of transmission", while some Protestant authors call it "a dual source of revelation".

Scripture and sacred tradition

The Roman Catholic Church, against whom the Protestants directed these arguments, did non see Scripture and the Sacred Tradition of the faith as different sources of authority, but that Scripture was handed down as factor of Sacred Tradition see 2 Thessalonians 2:15, 2 Timothy 2:2.

The Catholic Church holds that the Gospel was transmitted by the apostles by their oral preaching, by example, and by observances handed on what they had received from the lips of Christ, from living with Him, and from what He did, or what they had learned through the prompting of the Holy Spirit; as well as by those apostles and apostolic men who under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit dedicated the message of salvation to writing. "This living transmission, accomplished in the Holy Spirit, is called Tradition, since it is for distinct from Sacred Scripture, though closely connected to it." "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture cause up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God."

The Tradition here in question comes from the apostles and hands on what they received from Jesus' teaching and example and what they learned from the Holy Spirit. The Catholic Church distinguishes Sacred Tradition from lesser ecclesiastical traditions— local customs that may be retained, modified or even abandoned. As explained by Athanasius of Alexandria, "Let us look at the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the Catholic Church from the very beginning, which the Logos gave edoken, the Apostles preached ekeryxan, and the Fathers preserved ephylaxan. Upon this the Church is founded tethemeliotai"St. Athanasius, "First Letter to Serapion", 28

The doctrines which symbolize Sacred Tradition are also perceived by the Church as cohesive in nature. The proper interpretation of the Scriptures was seen as part of the faith of the Church and seen indeed as the classification in which biblical authority was upheld see Book of Acts 15:28–29. The meaning of Scripture was seen as proven from the faith universally held in the churches see Phil. 2:1, Acts 4:32, and the correctness of that universal faith was seen as proven from the Scriptures and apostolic Sacred Tradition see 2 Thes. 2:15, 2 Thes. 3:6, 1 Corinthians 11:2. The Biblical canon itself was thus viewed by the Church as part of the Church's tradition, as defined by its leadership and acknowledged by its laity. The number one generation of Christians did not yet have a or situation. New Testament, and the New Testament itself demonstrates the process of living Tradition.

The Catholic Dei verbum and the papal encyclicals Providentissimus Deus by Pope Leo XIII and Divino afflante Spiritu by Pope Pius XII species out Catholic teaching on tradition versus individual interpretation.

The Catholic Church teaches that Christ entrusted the preaching of the Gospel to the apostles, who handed it on orally and in writing, and according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "the apostolic preaching, which is expressed in a special way in the inspired books, was to be preserved in a continuous line of succession until the end of time. "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture equal a single sacred deposit of the Word of God in which, as in a mirror, the pilgrim Church contemplates God, the source of all her riches." For the Eastern Orthodox too, "the Holy Bible forms a part of Holy Tradition, but does not lie outside of it. One would be in error to suppose that Scripture and Tradition are two separate and distinct sources of Christian Faith, as some do, since there is, in reality, only one source; and the Holy Bible exists and found its formulation within Tradition".

Catholics apply to apostolic tradition many of the assigns that evangelicals and other Protestants apply to scripture alone. For example, the 1978 Evangelical declaration Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, states: "We affirm that inspiration was the work in which God by His Spirit, through human writers, gave us His Word. The origin of Scripture is divine. The mode of divine inspiration keeps largely a mystery to us. We deny that inspiration can be reduced to human insight, or to heightened states of consciousness of any kind."

Since the Catholic Church professes that apostolic tradition and scripture are both the word of God, Catholics can affirm that many of these propositions apply equally well to tradition: this is the the work of the Holy Spirit, which cannot be reduced to human insight or heightened consciousness.

This ties in with the question of what constitutes apostolic tradition. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that this tradition is assumption "by the apostles who handed on, by the spoken word of their preaching, by the example they gave, by the institutions they established, what they themselves had received - if from the lips of Christ, from his way of life and his works, or if they had learned it at the prompting of the Holy Spirit".

There maintain some confusion on the matter among both Catholics and non-Catholics. This confusion can be seen in those who interpret Catholic researcher James Keenan to claim that the doctrines condition by apostolic tradition have changed. Keenan reviewed the history of moral theology, and in particular a conform in the approach of moral theologians, specifically in the twentieth century. Keenan noted that Mark D. Jordan said that medieval texts he had reviewed appeared to be inconsistent. This refers to medieval traditions and not to apostolic tradition or doctrine. Keenan, however, says that John T. Noonan Jr. demonstrated that, "despite claims to the contrary, manualists were co-operators in the necessary historical coding of the moral tradition". According to Noonan, "history cannot leave a principle or a teaching untouched; every a formal request to be considered for a position or to be allowed to do or have something. to a situation affects our understanding of the principle itself."