…there is [among Biblical scholars] an unwillingness to accept the existence and the significance of theology as a discipline in its own right. One of several roots of this unwillingness is, perversely, the popular Protestant insistence on sola scriptura. When one has the Bible, what need is there for the subtleties and sophistries of theology?
Francis Watson, Text and Truth, p.4
Well, quite. I don't think it is a good understanding of sola scriptura that leads to this difficulty though...
3 comments:
We can do without the sophistries perhaps, yes.
One of the things the Reformers insisted on was a break from the medieval Catholic idea of Theology as coming down from above, mediated by the Church. Instead, Theology was seen as a human, not a divine activity, and therefore fallible.
But does that mean we don't need Theology as a science? No. But it does mean it is subject to scrutiny by the standard of the Word of God, and revision to bring it in line with what is Divinely and infallibly revealed.
I was rather picking up the irony in Watson's comment: what need have we of theology? Every need!
Well spotted MJ!
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