Sola scriptura is a
formal principle of many
Protestant Christian denominations, and one of the
five solae. It was a foundational doctrinal principle of the
Protestant Reformation held by many of the
Reformers, who taught that authentication of scripture is governed by the discernible excellence of the text as well as the personal witness of the
Holy Spirit to the heart of each man. Some
evangelical and
Baptist denominations state the doctrine of
sola scriptura more strongly: scripture is self-authenticating, clear (perspicuous) to the rational reader, its own interpreter ("Scripture interprets Scripture"), and sufficient of itself to be the final authority of
Christian doctrine.
[1]
By contrast,
Anglicanism and
Methodism, also considered forms of Protestantism, uphold the doctrine of
prima scriptura,
[2][3] with scripture being illumined by
tradition, reason and experience as well, thus completing the four sides of, in Methodism, the
Wesleyan Quadrilateral.
[4] The
Eastern Orthodox Church holds that to "accept the books of the canon is also to accept the ongoing Spirit-led authority of the church's tradition, which recognizes, interprets, worships, and corrects itself by the witness of Holy Scripture".
[5] The
Roman Catholic Church officially regards tradition and scripture as equal, as interpreted by the
Roman magisterium.
[6] The Roman Catholic Church describes this as "one common source ... with two distinct modes of transmission",
[7] while some Protestant authors call it "a dual source of revelation".
[8]
Sola scriptura - Wikipedia