the political meaning of "sola scriptura"

Apr 23rd, 2009

Evan Curry discusses the meaning and function of sola scriptura here. Money quote:

If we hold Scripture and tradition hand-in-hand, reminding ourselves what tradition has to say about Scripture, and Scripture about tradition, it influences our worship and how we live as “God’s people.” We remember the importance of the Eucharist, and it is not reduced to a boring “ritual;” instead, it brings life. We remember the importance of baptism, not as “some thing we just do” but as something that brings life. We remember the Church’s stance of non-violence, and we second-guess our tendencies to partake in any of its forms. If we do so, we will live stories of justice, embrace, love, and service. We will remember our heroes and heroines, and we seek to live in the Christ-like ways they did. Scripture walking hand-in-hand with tradition brings life, not death (as many have supposed), to the Church.

What those who follow a literal theological hermeneutic of sola scriptura forget, or may have never learned, is that for Luther this was a political claim as well, and arguably more so than a theological or hermeneutical claim. He was sticking it to the Pope by saying that. It was the same as saying "The Pope has no authority over the Christian conscience and therefore has no real power over anyone." I really doubt that he would have ever taken it to the place that American evangelicalism has through its fundamentalist branch. Theology and biblical hermeneutics are inherently political and if we lose sight of that, we lose sight of what theology does to people when we make theological pronouncements.

Theology and hermeneutics are political because what we decide to judge as worthy of inclusion in our theology or way of understanding the bible also judges what must be left out. Because theology and how it is informed by the bible forms a complex relationship between God and human beings, theological propositions include and exclude often very specific behaviors, social structures, and even entire persons in the process. Without such a function, theology is a blind and dead enterprise and would cease to exist as a public discourse among communities of people. Sola scriptura was, is, and always will be, therefore, a political statement. That it would become an hermeneutical ideology to ground the church, and thus to ignore its central political function denies its function in the history of the church.