Sola Scriptura and Roman Catholic Tradition

There has been much dialog recently with the Roman Catholic Church and various Protestant groups - notably the Lutheran Church. This dialog has focussed on justification and santification in particular. Now while this certainly seems encouraging, one must realize that sola scriptura was the material principle of the Reformation. Reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Church cannot occur without actually discussing it. While the Roman Catholic Church retains its two-source view on scripture and tradition, this reconciliation is impossible.

The Roman view on tradition and Scripture is that each of these possess equal authority and separate information. Tradition is supposed to guide the interpretation of scripture, and the interpretation of scripture is supposed to inform and extend tradition. Since they are two separate sources with different information, neither one is primary. Both are used by the Church to advance its mission in the world. This view is known as the two-source view of tradition because tradition contains different information from that found in Scripture, and that different information is not derived from scripture.

Sola Scriptura means, at minimum, that primary importance is to be given to Scripture. Certainly nothing is of equal authority to it. Therefore, it quite obviously follows that the two-source view of tradition is incompatible with sola scriptura. Neither can one have a minor modification to bring it into line with the other. So it quite obviously follows that at least one of the doctrines must be false.

Now dialog with the Roman Catholic Church could continue ignoring this if it was not a matter of first importance. However, the historical evangelical position (of which all Protestants historically have agreed with) states that sola scriptural is of central importance to the faith. So there is no way to continue ignoring this issue and actually progress in any form of reconciliation. The Catholic Church needs to begin discussing the reasons for its belief and the Lutheran Church needs to present the reasons for sola scriptura. If the Lutheran Church, or any group claiming to represent Protestants, fails to do so then it no longer represents Protestants. So let's see some discussion on this issue.