This is an interesting post and I tend to agree with it.
It is an uncomfortable issue in Lutheranism, this solafidean “lensing” of the whole Bible but they continue to do it. While they do not, as a rule, judge the canonicity of books by any (subjective) evaluation of their effectiveness in articulating the doctrine, it remains the primary hermeneutical tool Lutherans use for exegeting Scripture. The first question asked of any text is, how does it illuminate the cross and speak of the saving work of Christ? An explicit search for reference to the benefits being appropriated by faith alone is often lacking but implied.
As a hermeneutic, I think the soteriological approach is significant and useful and (since Paul and Augustine), really, very Catholic. Looking for implicit articulations of salvation by faith alone, less so.
But then, this also speaks to another Lutheran peculiarity: the tendency to anti-nomianism.
Let me be clear, I am not saying that Lutheranism is anti-nomian, but the clear and unwavering commitment to a solifidean outlook does leave the door open to it and not a few Lutherans without a good grounding in their own confessions and theology have gone ahead and walked through it.
If one expands the radius to draw the
hermeneutic circle a bit larger one does not need Hermes coming down from Mt. Olympus to tell us that Protestantism itself is a generalized theology of antinomianism, anti-authority and lawlessness.
From a Catholic perspective this is an accelerating trend of Protestantism in general: ‘Each person properly accoutered with his KJV can be his own authority! Hallelujah!’.
In my own opinion Protestantism is just another variant of humanity’s great grasp at ‘equality with God’. Only this time we have a case where some purposely close their eyes in self righteous prayer to fumble around in the dark to steal the forbidden fruit so they can’t see themselves commit the crime and feel any guilt.
Anarchy and lawlessness are always the eventual wild fruits that come from the inner seed that remains after one consumes one’s fill of pride and self focus.
In a general sense then, in my view Protestantism under a self delusion of service and worship to God and “liberation” from the papal and apostolic authority of The Catholic Church has metaphorically reached for the forbidden fruit of: self actualization, self rule and subjective (personal) infallability to achieve a sort of “self maximus”. But we know from Cain and Abel that ostensibly good intentions are not always sufficient to produce good and acceptable worship to God nor to render productive works. In fact error and self deception can and do lead to grave sin - murder and persecution are often the norm. We Catholics hold that nothing objectively good and meritable to self is possible if one separates themselves through grave sin and is not in accord with God’s laws and His will.
So from my perspective, those outside The Catholic Church have constructed and rallied under a man made confederate banner of “Christianity” with a logo that might read: “I did it MY way”. They mean well - but they march to their own drummer and have only opposition to papal authority as a unifying principal that keeps them all (loosely) in step.
But it was John Locke (1632), the father of modern fundamentalism who was perhaps the person who really took things well past the errors of Luther. It is my opinion that he was the person who God used to quickened the demise of Protestantism - and perhaps even our very way of Western life as we currently know it since his errors permeate all parts of our culture. It was Locke who loosed the hidden lawlessness of fundamentalism that were originally spawned from the academically obsessed mind and personal scrupulosity of Luther. It is largely because of Locke’s fundamentalism (and generous tax free privileged status for religions
) that we get the 32,000 or so Protestant sects (and increasing) that we have today. It was Locke’s radical fundamentalism that re-crafted Christ teachings to use private interpretation of scripture to undo “God’s law” and Church authority elevate each individual person above law to use their own wild and undisciplined conscience to decide on all personal conduct. It was Locke who sets us all up for the inevitable lawlessness of: radical individualism, self-direction and self justification.
So, Sola Scriptura is just one aspect of the greater evil of fundamentalism (in all its global forms and flavors) and ignorance that threatens to push humanity backwards 1,000 years if reason does not prevail. Ironically this Protestant fundamentalism is a sort of competing catholicism (small c) since it is widespread and we also see this same underlying pattern of error in Islamic belief systems as well as in ideological social philosophies.
But getting back to the OP it really does not matter who is responsible for the error of sola scruptura or the nonsensical fundamentalism we have today in so many Protestant sects. All that really matters is how much of humanity can avoid and survive the inevitable chaos and stress that will come out of it and how many return to the rock and stability of The Catholic Church.
James
