Atheism and the search for multi-generational wisdom. After abandoning the incoherent world of atheism, I was something like a Platonic idealist, believing in transcendent principles of Truth and Beauty that weren’t constrained by the limits of the material world. But this wasn’t a complete picture of reality.
Protestantism does not rest so chiefly upon Luther as you say, nor were his calls for reformation a mere rebellion against his teachers; nor is Sola Scriptura identical to Nuda Scriptura, though you do rightfully critique the latter. Sola Scriptura is merely taking the Scriptures alone to be the final, infallible rule of faith; it follows thus that, in order to interpret it correctly, one needs to acknowledge and understand the context in which its component books are written. While this is generally preserved well across historic traditions, there are also cases where developments get out of hand due to excess influence from external traditions—especially after several centuries of such developments unimpeded by persecution or rivalry with other religions. This is something the Reformation Fathers sought to course-correct upon, even if there were some who jumped on that bandwagon (especially later on) to twist the Scriptures into something other than they truly are like the Gnostics of old.
Thank you for this piece! Looking forward to part 3, God willing! God bless from Germany!
Thank you for another insightful post.
Protestantism does not rest so chiefly upon Luther as you say, nor were his calls for reformation a mere rebellion against his teachers; nor is Sola Scriptura identical to Nuda Scriptura, though you do rightfully critique the latter. Sola Scriptura is merely taking the Scriptures alone to be the final, infallible rule of faith; it follows thus that, in order to interpret it correctly, one needs to acknowledge and understand the context in which its component books are written. While this is generally preserved well across historic traditions, there are also cases where developments get out of hand due to excess influence from external traditions—especially after several centuries of such developments unimpeded by persecution or rivalry with other religions. This is something the Reformation Fathers sought to course-correct upon, even if there were some who jumped on that bandwagon (especially later on) to twist the Scriptures into something other than they truly are like the Gnostics of old.
https://substack.com/@stevenberger/note/c-91757337?r=1nm0v2
Thoroughly enjoy reading this, thank you so much for putting in the effort to write it so eloquently.