Sola will scriptura

The Bible carrying the Word of God

The expression sola will scriptura (ablative Latin meaning “by the Writing alone”) indicates the principle Protesting according to which the Bible is the ultimate authority to which the Chrétiens and the Church are subjected, for the faith and the life Christian women.

At the time of Martin Luther, this expression reaffirmed especially the importance of the Bible, vis-a-vis the decrees which came from the medieval Church, the Concile S and the Pape. But more largely and more deeply, vis-a-vis the catholic belief of a continuous Revelation of God in his Church guided by the the Holy Spirit, vis-a-vis the orthodoxe belief of a truth resulting from the consensuses from faithful guided by the same Spirit, the sola will scriptura of the Réforme subjects the Tradition and the Church to the Writing lit by the Saint Spirit, and any normative value denies to them.

Regarded as carrying the Word of God, the Bible is at the same time the criterion of the authority Théologique and the only guide, in last authority, for the faith and the life. It is lit by the preaching of ministers called by the Church and trained by it (but the Saint Spirit can call others Prédicateur S that only those). Through human testimonys that it transmits to us, it draws principles of life from which the personal liabilities of each one in the tender with the Word are exerted to which it testifies.

The principle of the sola will scriptura figure at the head professions of faith of several Christian denominations resulting from the Réforme, thus conferring to him a value of article of faith.

Divergent designs

Some of the opponents to the sola will scriptura in particular among catholics, affirm that no text of the Bible supports really this principle.

So that, according to them, this principle leads to a contradiction, the first article of faith not finding itself its justification in the Bible.

Moreover, the catholics affirm that this principle created a false opposition enters the “Jesus of the Gospel” and the “Jesus of Eucharistie”: it is the same Person, except that Jesus is rééellement present in Eucharistie, but which it is spiritually present in the Bible.

The Concile of Thirty affirms that there is no opposition between the Word of God (the Writing and the tradition of the Spirit) and the Body of God (Eucharistie).

Word with the Writing

In the Protestantism, the implementation of this principle involved different visions.

Indeed, for some, there is complete identity between the word of God and the Bible. For others, this writing reports a human testimony (as it is known as in the catholic canticle We will sing for you : the words of God resounded/In our languages of men,/And our voices sing Jesus-Christ/By the Spirit that it gives us. ). The majority are between these two extremes.

The theological debates relate to the following points:

Traditional and evangelic Protestantism

  • Y does it have a “gun in the gun” (in fact the death and the resurrection of the Christ) which makes it possible to determine the value of the other texts, as the Luthéranisme affirms it?

  • is it Necessary to seek in the Writing itself, taken as a whole, the direction of a particular text (“interpres scripturae will scriptura”), as the reformed and the majority of the evangelic Églises affirm it classically?
  • should be considered each text, in its literality, like expressing the truth fully, according to the principle of the “infallibility” often affirmed by the fundamentalist ?
  • does This truth impose a certain ethics, comprises it only one vision of the world?

Liberal Protestantism

Is it necessary on the contrary to see in the fast Bible only one formulation of the means of the hello and to include/understand this sola extensively will scriptura , i.e. like the Writing and all that work hermeneutics reveals, as affirm it Paul Ricœur (in his foreword in the Jesus of Bultmann) and the liberal? …

Although theological reference, the liberals do not regard the Bible as an irremovable monument; there is not, as for the meter, a Bible standard , or, as for the universal declaration of the human rights, a Bible being taken - what is paradoxical.

These Protestants establish a reference around the Writing according to two movements: one, to go back to more close possible the times and events reported in the Bible, to find the authenticity of origin of it; the other, to translate with more close possible these events within the framework present, to find of it the authenticity current.

Authority and translation

From the beginning, the Réformateurs carried out an effort of translation in vulgar language, to make current the message of the Écriture.

Within a defined framework, the authority of a translation rather than of another is done simply by consensus, adhesion, of the believers, according to the nature of the meeting, or the frame of mind of the participants. The Protestants put simply agreement between them, by the discussion, mutual listening, the personal reflection. To ensure their inward conviction, they attach a great importance to the transparency of the work of translation, with its history of a translation, its notoriety in the medium, the comparison with others, with its own authenticity. This inward conviction bases itself not on only one biblical translation, but on several. The movement is similar to that which is imposed by the Gospels, which are not one, but four; there cannot thus be a Gospel of reference, but four.

Currently the Bible S the most used, beside old the Segond (1910 or revisions of 1975 and 1978) are TOB, and the Nouvelle Bible Segond (NBS). But translation of Chouraqui, for biblical studies, or those in current French (BFC) and fundamental French ( Word of Life ) for the catechesis of the children, are it too.

On Wikipedia, the article the Arche of Noah presents on a precise passage the point of view of various approaches of reading.

Bible with the Church and the world

How this principle was put into practice? Of all the sola , that on the writing is the only one which is attached to a concrete object, consequently, it is only on which it is possible to discuss in an objective way.

Thus, the Protestants wished to rest on the Bible to furnish proof to third their lifestyle choices, of Église, their policy options, sentimental, etc They reached that point, with various fortunes; reality imposes a certain modesty.

The Revolt of the bumpkins, for example, confronted Luther with all the difficulty of the exercise. Its positions had shown to peasants the sign of a better life, and, to have arguments and more force in their claims, these peasants slipped into their claims of the biblical passages to defend their interests. But Luther did not see in them any political project or monk, only of the elements of social disorder. There were, according to him, confusion between the religious fields and the fields common. Luther decided to safeguard the religious field, while joining repression. But repression was of a great ferocity, and Luther was regarded as hypocrite: a monk, concerned of the general good, knowing so well the Bible and thus, according to his approach, also meadows of the Word of God whom one can the being, should have found a better way than a simple association with the princes of this world, against the poor of this world.

Better perhaps inspired, the construction of the Pennsylvania by the Quaker S and the Lutherans German, with the XVII {{E}} and 18th centuries, showed a collective step to put a faith to the test, and to build a world righter.

Supposed to remove any form of terrestrial authority to release the listening of the Word of God, the Sola Scriptura was not long in causing others of them. Very quickly, believing itself elected by their biblical analyzes, the reformers gave each other the right of life and of died on their next, or the right to arrange the role of the women.

Much more, they were not long in adapting their reading of the Bible to their economic interests to depends on weakest, principal, individually and collectively, the greatest crimes. Thus, for example, the Protestants had an active share in the Traite blacks, in the Apartheid, share which they justified, in all sincerity, by various passages of the Bible.

Today, the Protestants consider that they were simple errors of interpretation, which could not call into question the principle. It is true that, so Protestants, being pressed on the Bible, committed these crimes, others, being pressed on the same Bible, denounced them and fought for the re-establishment of justice. As a whole, the Protestants recognized their errors, and knew to reform themselves. But the evil was made, the Bible was not protective.

Another element of discussion of the Sola Scriptura , more positive, was brought by max Weber and understanding sociology. It was raised for a long time astonishing it economic dynamism by the Protestant mediums in occident. This dynamism seems due to an approach different from the concept of work in this medium. Luther, indeed, directed its translation of the Bible so that work is regarded as a vocation.

This indeed seems to be an invention of Luther. But does one have to interpret it like a personal modification of the biblical text, which would be a violation of the Sola Scriptura ? Or does one have to interpret it as something that the Holy Spirit would have suggested in Luther, thus giving an unexpected range to the designs of the reformer? It is impossible to answer in all objectivity this question. Understanding sociology opens especially spaces with subjectivity, and thus it would be awkward to conclude.

To deepen

  • THE BIBLE:

a very documented description, compared to Luther and in Calvin, of the reports/ratios to the Bible, by the reformed Protestant church of Alsace and Lorraine.
Very near to the Sola most demanding Scriptura , but by admitting certain external contributions: Nevertheless, the Writing is not immediately identifiable with the Word of God. It requires the action of the Holy Ghost who gives him direction , or, for example: It is essential to reaffirm that the Word of God is a person and not doctrines or a whole of truths scripturaires.
Very critical vis-a-vis the Catholic church, these designs leave however some open doors to a bringing together with it. Initially by recognizing that the catholics also divide the Bible like source and standard of their faith, and also by recognizing the interest to structure the church; “sola will scriptura” is not opposed to the construction of an ecclesiastical structure, which the faith needs to be incarnated in a terrestrial reality. But the word and the practice of this ecclesiastical structure should not become absolutes.

See too

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