A bit of Dutch clarity

Herman Bavinck, the Dutchman whose works are just being translated into English, gives a strong account of the clarity of scripture as a Protestant sine qua non:

'The teaching of the perspicuity of Scripture is one of the strongest bulwarks of the Reformation'.

It was true in the 16th century; it is true now. As Bavinck reads the history of theology, the clarity of scripture was upheld from the earliest times and even as late as Gregory 1 and beyond. In fact, it is not until the 12th century that the obscurity of scripture becomes a teaching of Rome. Of course, the corollory of scripture's obscurity is an infallible magisterium, who alone can interpret. Which, in effect, means that authority as both norm and judge belongs to the hierarchy of the church alone.

It is funny how contemporary this problem is. Intepretation is a necessary activity of course; but interpretational activity can be carried out with ceding all the authority to the interpreter. However, as in Rome, so in modern liberal Prostantism (which is like Rome without all the good bits): it is just that the interpreter in whom authority is thought to reside is an individual not a church hierarchy...

Individual readers and churches do have responsibility to judge what they read, says Bavinck; but neither the conscience nor the magisterium are infallible. They are not the highest court... They may err. Indeed, do!