Three Theological Philosophies In The 1500's

Timeline Session 2
Daniel R. Leedy
HIS-211A-ON353-SP17: History of Christianity- Block 3
Professor Dr. Joel Kant
13 Apr 2017

During the early 1500’s, three theological philosophies came to recognize the Reformation: Sola gratia, sola fide, and sola scriptura. Sola gratia (Latin, ‘grace alone’ or ‘by grace alone’) this highlights that salvation occurs by God’s ‘grace alone’. Sola fide (Latin, ‘faith alone’ or ‘by faith alone’) is alike in that it stresses that people accept God’s gracious offer of salvation by (or through) ‘faith alone’. Sola scriptura (Latin, ‘scripture alone’) emphasizes that ‘scripture alone’, rather than church authority or human opinion, represents religious authority. It is sometimes called the ‘formal principle’
In concept, sola gratia, sola fide, and sola scriptura became strong mottos for recognizing, protecting, and endorsing the Protestant Reformation. Protestants continue to tout them. In practice, there are many reasons to question the Protestant principles both in terms of how the forefathers used them and especially in terms of how Protestants have used them since the time of the Reformation. In many ways, Protestantism includes more than grace alone, more than faith alone, and more than scripture alone. The Latin word solus (‘primarily’) makes more logic in relating the complicated understanding of Re-formers and their nuanced delivery of salvation and religious authority. The concept of solus makes even more sense in describing the diversity of beliefs, values, and practices in the subsequent development of Protestant
Catholics could come up with a lot of these solas. “Since Paul talks about the value of personal suffering for the Church (Colossians 1:24), we could say that we are saved by "Suffering alone". And since the Bible states that the Church is the pillar and bulwark of Truth (1 Timothy 3:15), then we could create the doctrine of being saved by "The Church alone”. And since we have to be forgiven for our sins before we can enter heaven, we could come up with the doctrine of "Confession alone".” The Bible was meant to be taken as a whole, and to not be broken down into parts for convenience' sake.” (Catholic Bible 101).
So, it is pretty easy to tell that the Protestant Reformation believed and lived by the 3 Solas. They have simply taken things out of the bible and highlighted certain parts and created this theological idea. The Anabaptists were ahead of their time. They held persistently to religious right for all men, even when they disagreed with the true gospel of Christ. However; The Roman Catholic Church believes that faith in the 3 solas leads us away from the rest of what is necessary for salvation, like the Church, the Sacraments, prayer, helping the poor, performing good works,