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    Published: 2023-11-251
    Vol. 65 No. 1 (2023)

    A Catholic Version of Sola Scriptura? An Answer of Joseph Ratzinger

    Sławomir Zatwardnicki

    https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7597-6604
    https://doi.org/10.36124/rt.2023.03

    Abstract

    The assessment of the Protestant formal principle and the feasibility of developing a Catholic variant of the sola Scriptura doctrine was based on Joseph Ratzinger’s works. The Bavarian theologian reduced the question concerning the principle “by Scripture alone” to the issue of the mode of presence of Divine revelation in history. He showed the inextricable connection between Scripture and the Church, which is visible in the origin of the sacred writings, the affirmation of their canonicity, and present as the creed in the pages of the New Testament. Ratzinger distinguishes between Revelation and Scripture as the witness and material principle of Revelation. Scripture plays the role of the “office of testimony” and thus secures the historical “just once” of Revelation. But Revelation also has its “today”, being present in the life, faith and worship of the Church. Revelation is the source from which the two streams of Scripture and Tradition flow as the material and historical forms of the transmission of Revelation. The question of “Scripture and Tradition” should be incorporated into the broader question of “Revelation and Tradition”. In his polemic with Geiselmann, Ratzinger argued that the non-identity of Revelation and Scripture denies the possibility of accepting the Catholic variant of sola Scriptura. It is only the reality of Christ that is sufficient, not its inspired testimony.

    Keywords:

    sola Scriptura, Scripture alone, Joseph Ratzinger, Scripture vs the Church, Scripture vs Tradition, Scripture vs Revelation, Divine revelation, material sufficiency of Scripture, the “once for all” of Revelation, the living presence of Revelation

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    Zatwardnicki, S. (2023). A Catholic Version of Sola Scriptura? An Answer of Joseph Ratzinger. Theological Yearbook, 65(1). https://doi.org/10.36124/rt.2023.03

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