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Aquinas: Rule of Faith ("sola canonica scriptura est regula fidei")
Thomas Aquinas’ expression, “sola canonica scriptura est regula fidei” at first glance sounds a lot like the Reformation maxim that the rule of faith is only the canonical scripture. Here’s an English translation of the relevant portion: It should be noted that though many might write concerning Catholic truth, there is this difference that those…
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Aquinas and the Formal Sufficiency of Scripture
I’ve previously noted Aquinas’ apparent [FN1] view of the primacy of Scripture (link) as well as other comments from Aquinas on themes generally related to Sola Scriptura (link). The following quotation, however, comes close to expressing not only the material sufficiency of Scripture, but also the formal sufficiency of Scripture. Thus in Holy Writ no…
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Examining John 17 and Christian Disunity
On his personal blog, Roman Catholic Bryan Cross has a post that consists of a flowchart (link to post). If you examine his flow chart, you’ll notice that in the upper right hand corner he asks the reader to “Go read John 17.” The reason to go read that chapter, per Bryan’s flow chart, is…
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The Distinction Gets Narrower Again – Further Response to Bryan Cross
In previous posts, we have seen that there is a principled difference between sola scriptura and solo scriptura (link to post), as well as that there is a principled difference between Mathison’s view and the Roman Catholic view with respect to the holder of ultimate interpretive authority (link to post). I. Introduction to Bryan’s Argument…
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Principled Distinctions – Again – This Time in a Narrower Category
Tim Troutman (here) and Bryan Cross (here) have each responded to my previous post (here). My previous post pointed out that there is, indeed, a principled distinction between sola scriptura and solo scriptura. Tim and Bryan have both responded, albeit somewhat differently. I. Introduction – Bryan and Tim Respond Bryan and Tim end up with…
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Only Infallible Authority We Have – Not Only Authority
David at Pious Fabrications, an Eastern Orthodox blog, has assigned himself an interesting project. He’s going to, well, in his words: “What I’m going to try to do here is to actually look at that individual [church father], their life and writings as a whole, and really, finally answer the question: did he believe in…
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A Distinction in Principle between Sola Scriptura and Solo Scriptura
Tim Troutman over at the Roman Catholic blog Called to Communion wrote: The Reformed claim to believe in Church authority but they subject that authority to their own private interpretation of Scripture and thus their self-view of Church authority is no different in principle than the Protestant who would explicitly state that his only authority…
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Visualizing the Flow of Communication and Ultimate Interpreters
The chart above shows the relationship of various parties with respect to a flow of communication. First, let’s consider the left hand side of the chart. God spoke directly to Adam and Moses. Moses spoke directly to the people of Israel, but he also provided Scripture. Scripture speaks both to individual believers and the church,…
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Justin Martyr’s Source of Apostolic Information – the Memoirs of the Apostles
Justin Martyr’s biography is necessarily a bit uncertain. Nevertheless, according to our best guesses, Justin Martyr was born around the year of our Lord 100, only a few years after the last of the apostles, the Apostle John, died. Thus, one might imagine that Justin Martyr’s knowledge of the Apostles’ teachings would come primarily from…
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Didn’t Augustine Say That He Wouldn’t Believe the Gospel but for the Catholic Church?
I anticipate a response to my post on the Augustinian approach of seeking the Church through Scripture. The response is to provide the following quotation: But should you meet with a person not yet believing the gospel, how would you reply to him were he to say, I do not believe? For my part, I…