Scripture Alone?

Sola Scriptura is a popular expression coming out of the Protestant Reformation. It loosely means "scripture and only scripture is the source of Christian authority."

Martin Luther had lost all faith that the Church could have any real authority as an institution, anymore. The corruption, hypocrisy and spiritual violence were just too broad and endemic in his view. However, in order to look for another source for authority, he prematurely grasped onto scripture. He overvalued the place and history of scripture in order to have something with which to balance the out of control power of the Church. However, like anything, you can over-compensate and throw the balance out of whack just as much the other way.

Here's the rub: It took about 400 years for the canon of the New Testament to be formally agreed upon as the authoritative scripture of the Christian tradition. Some writings were actually considered authoritative early on, but some books (like Revelation) were hotly debated for centuries before being finally accepted by orthodox Christianity. The New Testament did not just fall out of the sky.

It does not make any sense to consider scripture to be authoritative but not to regard the Church that actually put it together as authoritative, as well. I'm not saying the Church did it by itself--the Holy Spirit was at work. But to say that scripture is authoritative is also to admit that the Church is also a vehicle for the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit used the Church to form this canon of scripture. And it did not use people as mere robots--the Church did this in the freedom in Christ and living relationship with the Holy Spirit. That is evident by the rich debates concerning scripture in the early Church.

So what was Christianity like for those 400 years without the New Testament? The reality is that people were Christian without any New Testament, including some of our most revered Christians, such as the Apostles themselves and the early martyrs.

Christ was also authority. We can easily forget that because it is so obvious. Jesus walked this earth and through his life and teachings he had an impact on people. Those people were so moved that even humble Galilean fishermen suddenly became the foundation of a movement which brought them across the Roman Empire and beyond. There is evidence of a living oral tradition of Jesus lasting at least a couple hundred years after the death of Jesus, and probably elements of that oral tradition have continued to shape the church in subtle ways since then.

Christians flourished for generations, many of them without any of the current books of the New Testament. They may have had other writings, but they certainly had an oral tradition or direct experience of Jesus to move them. Someone had to tell them about Jesus. You can argue that these people had some of the books of the modern New Testament. I don't think there is any way to know that, though. But we do know that the first generation didn't have them, since the earliest writings of the New Testament probably didn't come for years after the death of Jesus.

In light of all this, most mainline Protestant churches have taken a softer stance on "scripture and only scripture" lately. The relationship between the written Word of God and the living Body of Christ in the Church is a complex one. Christ came first and then the Church--a body of people spurned by the experience of Christ. Out of the Church came a written tradition. This written tradition continues to feed back into this movement and renew it. So there is a ying/yang relationship between Scripture and the Tradition of the Church as a people. The Church produced scripture which continually renews the Church, allowing the Church to look on scripture again with newer eyes, etc.

However, the mindset of sola scriptura is still alive. Fundamentalists still adhere to a scripture-only approach, denying the historical reality of the tradition that put it together.

Scripture is such a looming presence in the minds of many Christians, even those who know that the story is larger than that. Many Christians feel all they need is time alone with their Bible for their spiritual connection, even having complete detachment with the movement of people called Christians.

Scripture keeps us in touch with our roots, but it often can prevent us from moving forward. Some Christians have an innate fear of developments in culture and theology beyond what is expressed in the Bible. Later developments such as the doctrine of the Trinity are often regarded as suspect, since they are not explicitly stated as such in the Bible. But it is a huge assumption that somehow only Biblical ideas are be valid! The Church should not and cannot be stuck in the past, always looking back and trying to reconstruct what is was like in early Christianity, and neglecting the gifts of the Spirit today. Thinking in terms of "scripture alone" can impede our growth in faith and can prevent us from living in the present.

This doesn't mean we neglect scripture or see it as only the cute historical remnants of a bygone era. It is the first witness to Christ and must be consulted on an on-going basis. It keeps us from going too far from the tradition of Christ. It renews us. We must be aware of our roots, and it keeps us reminded of a very specific person in a very specific place at a very specific time. But we are also free to move forward. It was the living Body of the Church out of which this scripture came. This living Body of Christ can be (and often is) the source of continued developments in the future!

I'm sympathetic with Luther's worries about the Church. It seems to be always filled with hypocrisy and corruption. It is also filled with human beings, each of us with planks in our own eyes. It is still not hard to wonder why it has to be that bad, though. But this isn't new. Look at the first disciples of Jesus, a denser group of people is hard to find, as my scripture prof would say. Peter--the "rock--was as unreliable as he was headstrong. Christianity has never been a Church of the flawless. But to just arbitrarily pick scripture to hold onto instead of this loosey goosey Church isn't going to solve any problems, either.