CC--Christianese 22d: Sola Scriptura (part 4 of 4)

--The doctrine of Protestantism that the Bible is the only and ultimate source of authority for all Christians is the main thing which divide Catholics and Protestants. Other issues come from this one and are also major, but this is the original or main one.
--We know that Sola Scriptura already does divide Catholics and Protestants, but we still have the question of which things rise to this level? At what point do we divide?
--The Immaculate Conception of Mary is not taught by the Bible. Is that worth dividing over? Mandatory celibacy for priests is not taught in the Bible. What about that? Justification by faith alone is taught by the Bible. Should we disunite over this?
--We obviously can’t divide over everything, but when does something rise to the level of being worth dividing over, and who gets to decide?
--The real question being raised by the objection to Sola Scriptura is whether anybody at all can just pick up the Bible and get things right or whether there should be some caution about this radical individualism of doctrine. And that’s a really good question to consider. But doing so doesn’t lead to the other extreme of believing there must be one and only one official Christian church whose teachings are binding on all followers of Christ without any way to dispute them.
--Since even Catholics are usually willing to admit that the Catholic Church itself has benefitted tremendously from the challenges Protestantism has raised about its practices and dogmas, it would seem that some of these sources of fracture have been useful even to Catholicism.
--Still, it should be observed that one of the admirable qualities of the Catholic Church has been its historic ability to maintain doctrinal unity while still tolerating quite a variety of groups within its walls.
--So, although Protestants embrace the doctrine of Sola Scriptura, we also recognize that whenever fallible humans read the Bible, especially ones who do not have extensive training in how to read such a complex text or much experience in Christian life, they are sometimes going to come to different or even mistaken conclusions. And if this is the danger of Protestantism, it is merely the counterpart to the danger of Catholicism in which there are no robust protections against the adoption of errors or extra-Biblical doctrines. And the reason is simple. Even the Catholic Magisterium is composed of fallible humans as well.
--Just as having a single Bible doesn’t guarantee perfection of unity in the church, neither does having a single Bible and a single interpretative authority. We’re all humans, and that’s going to always be a problem.