Canonical Theology by John Peckham

Author:John Peckham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eerdmans

1. Philip Blosser, “What Are the Philosophical and Practical Problems with Sola Scriptura?” in Not by Scripture Alone: A Catholic Critique of the Protestant Doctrine of Sola Scriptura, ed. Robert A. Sungenis (Santa Barbara: Queenship, 1997), 50.

2. This working model is restricted to the meaning of sola Scriptura for theological method rather than the related issues of how sola Scriptura relates to ecclesial authority within the church (e.g., church discipline, intrachurch authority of clergy, etc.).

3. “Infallible” here means that Scripture is unfailingly accurate with regard to all that it affirms. Intrinsic to the infallibility of Scripture is the belief that divine revelation was accurately inscripturated via divine inspiration — “God-breathed” (cf. 2 Tim 3:16; 2 Pet 1:20-21). For a model of revelation–inspiration attentive to the doctrine and phenomena of Scripture, see Fernando Canale, Back to Revelation–Inspiration: Searching for the Cognitive Foundation of Christian Theology in a Postmodern World (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2001).

4. Each of these corollaries is canonically derived. The application of 2 Tim 3:16 as representative of tota Scriptura presupposes the correct identification of the scope of Scripture (i.e., canon) and suggests that, although the NT Scriptures were still in the process of writing when this verse was written, Paul’s affirmation of existing Scripture in this instance lends itself to an application of all Scripture that can be correctly identified as such (cf. 1 Tim 5:18; 2 Pet 3:16, and the discussion in chapter 2).

5. I distinguish private interpretation, which purports to exclude all other factors and thus results in isolationism, from individual interpretation, which does not attempt to interpret Scripture in isolation from the community but recognizes that each individual’s interpretation cannot be bypassed.

6. Accordingly, sola Scriptura does not suggest that only the Bible should be read but advocates the full development of one’s mind in accordance with biblical principles, learning from and engaging the best scholarship without “uncritical absorption”; see Anthony N. S. Lane, “Sola Scriptura? Making Sense of a Post-Reformation Slogan,” in A Pathway into the Holy Scripture, ed. P. E. Satterthwaite and David F. Wright (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 302.

7. Regarding general revelation, this approach holds that nature, properly understood, does not contradict Scripture (Ps 19:1-6). At the same time, post-Fall nature includes much that does not reveal God (Gen 3:17-18; Rom 8:20).

8. God (Father, Son, and Spirit) is the living source of infallible revelation, from whom the authority of Scripture derives. Yet the Spirit does not supersede Scripture. Believers are to “test the spirits” (1 John 4:1) and thus the Spirit-inspired canon functions as the collectively available standard by which all other factors may be measured.

9. Craig D. Allert, “What Are We Trying to Conserve? Evangelicalism and Sola Scriptura,” EvQ 76/4 (2004): 347.

10. As John Frame, “In Defense of Something Close to Biblicism: Reflections on Sola Scriptura and History in Theological Method,” WTJ 59 (1997): 275, states, an idea “may be based on a general principle rather than a specific text” but should nevertheless be able to “be shown to be exemplified in particular texts.

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