Quote: “Movements and theologies need short phrases that capture their convictions and give people something easy to remember in times of need. But these slogans can end up being reductive or distorted. A great example of this is sola Scriptura or “Scripture alone.”

“It accurately represents Luther if it means something like “the church has permission to formulate as binding doctrine or practice only those things that are taught in the Scripture, always pointing to the salvation offered in Jesus Christ as the matter of central importance, but it can’t make up new teachings or traditions and impose them on believers as a matter affecting their salvation.” Whew! Not a very catchy slogan, that.

“But, if sola Scriptura means something like “unless it’s explicitly written and defined in Scripture a Christian must have absolutely nothing to do with it” or “nothing in the entire history and tradition of the church is of any value at all” or “anyone can read the Scripture without any education or training and come up with a perfectly valid interpretation that cannot be challenged because after all it’s from Scripture”—then no, those unwieldy versions of sola Scriptura do not accurately reflect Luther.”

(From a now apparently defunct webpage by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson at  https://www.lutherreadingchallenge.org/ which is © Institute for Ecumenical Research “in Strasbourg, France, an affiliate of the Lutheran World Federation (http://www.lutheranworld.org/) that has been devoted to Lutheran churches’ ecumenical commitments since 1965.” The web page existed on 15 November 2016.)

Note: I get so exasperated with writers and speakers who misuse terms like this one. It’s shorthand for an important theological concept. It doesn’t mean what so many people make it out to mean. This is mostly those trying to “prove” fellow Christians are wrong, but sadly also includes lesser-informed Protestants. What Pastor Wilson says in the above quote accords with the original meaning of the pithy Latin phrase as used by those in the 16th century who first used it.