Sola Scriptura is Latin for “Scripture alone”. It is one of the founding principles of the Protestant Reformation: the Bible is the ultimate norm of doctrine and practice, and no human authority, not even the pope’s, can place itself above it. Contrary to a widespread idea, this did not mean reading the Bible without an interpreter or without tradition.
From indulgences to the question of authority
It all starts with a question of salvation. For Luther, grace is not earned by works, it is received. By challenging the sale of indulgences, he challenged the authority that justified them. In 1518, Cardinal Cajetan confronted him with a papal bull; Luther refused, because a human decision cannot prevail over Scripture. In 1520, he asked: if the pope could never be wrong, what would be the use of the Scriptures?
What the principle affirms, and what it does not
According to Keith Mathison, the Reformers’ position matches that of most of the early Church: Scripture is the only source of revelation and the ultimate norm, but it must be interpreted within the Church and according to the rule of faith. The Reformers quote the Fathers extensively. What they reject is the idea that a human authority could rule over Scripture or add to it doctrines that it does not contain.
The Catholic objection remains a serious one: if everyone interprets, who settles disagreements? The Reformers were aware of this. Luther appealed to the Spirit, Zwingli added philology, Calvin common sense. They founded schools to train pastors and wrote catechisms and confessions of faith. Sola Scriptura therefore does not mean reading without an interpreter, but that no interpreter stands above the text.
The Catholic response
The Council of Trent, which opened in 1545, affirmed on the contrary that revelation is contained in the written books and in the unwritten traditions, and that no one may interpret Scripture against the meaning held by the Church. Yet Catholics and Protestants share more than people think: the conviction that Scripture is the word of God and that it is read in the communion of the Church. They differ on the question of who has the last word.