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Course 11 · Lesson 3.2

The Catholic account: Scripture, tradition and the magisterium

13 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 11 outline

Module 1: What the Church Is

  1. Biblical images of the church: body, people, temple and bride
  2. One, holy, catholic and apostolic: the four marks
  3. The mission of the church
  4. The visible and invisible church in Augustine, the Reformers and the East

Module 2: Ministry and Apostolic Succession

  1. Ministry in the New Testament: apostles, elders, overseers and deacons
  2. The bishop in the early church: Clement, Ignatius and Irenaeus
  3. Apostolic succession: three meanings (a line of bishops, the teaching, the mission)
  4. Ordination in the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions

Module 3: Scripture, Tradition and Church Authority

  1. Scripture and tradition in the early church
  2. The Catholic account: Scripture, tradition and the magisterium
  3. The Orthodox account: the living tradition of the church
  4. The Reformation and the question of sola scriptura

Module 4: Three Systems of Authority

  1. The bishop of Rome in early history
  2. Papal primacy and infallibility in Catholic teaching
  3. Orthodox conciliarity and the role of the patriarchs
  4. Protestant principles of authority: Scripture, confessions and the priesthood of believers
  5. The strongest objections each tradition raises against the others

Module 5: Sacramental Theology

  1. Mystery and sacrament: the words and their history
  2. Augustine and the definition of a sacrament
  3. How many sacraments? Seven, two, or none
  4. Validity, efficacy and the role of faith

Module 6: Baptism and the Eucharist

  1. Baptism in Scripture and the early church
  2. Infant baptism and believers baptism
  3. The Eucharist in the early church
  4. Real presence: transubstantiation, the Orthodox mystery, Lutheran, Reformed and memorial views

Module 7: Reconciliation and Liturgical Worship

  1. The forgiveness of sins in Scripture
  2. Confession and penance in the history of the church
  3. Confession across the traditions: Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran and Reformed practice
  4. Liturgy, word and table, and the church year
  5. Worship without a fixed liturgy and its principles

Module 8: Schism and Christian Unity

  1. Early schisms: the Donatists and the churches after Chalcedon
  2. East and West: the long division and the events of 1054
  3. The Reformation divisions
  4. Ecumenism and the prospects for unity

All courses

Program / Course 11: Church, Sacraments, and Authority / Lesson 3.2

What you will learn

  • Describe the Catholic teaching that Scripture and sacred tradition form one deposit of faith.
  • Define the magisterium and explain how it is said to serve the word of God.
  • Explain the Catholic ideas of development of doctrine and of the sense of the faithful.
  • State the main Protestant and Orthodox objections and the Catholic replies.

The big idea

Catholic teaching holds that God’s revelation is handed on through Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition, which flow from the same source and are received with equal devotion. The task of giving an authentic interpretation of both belongs to the magisterium, the teaching office of the pope and the bishops in communion with him. Catholics say the magisterium is not above the word of God but serves it. Protestants and Orthodox Christians raise objections, chiefly about whether the claim can be shown from Scripture and the early church.

Key terms

Deposit of faith
The body of revealed truth handed down from the apostles, held in Scripture and tradition (a phrase drawn from 1 Timothy 6:20 and 2 Timothy 1:14).
Sacred Tradition
In Catholic teaching, the living transmission of the gospel by the church, in doctrine, worship and life. It is not the same as a custom or a local habit.
Magisterium
From the Latin for teacher. The authority to interpret the word of God, exercised by the bishops in union with the pope.
Ordinary and extraordinary magisterium
The ordinary magisterium is the regular teaching of the bishops with the pope. The extraordinary magisterium is a solemn definition by the pope or by an ecumenical council.
Development of doctrine
The idea that the church’s understanding of the same revealed truth deepens over time without changing the truth.
Sensus fidei
Latin for the sense of the faith. The instinct for the truth that the whole body of the faithful shares.
Dei Verbum
The Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (1965).

Background

The sixteenth century produced two competing slogans: Scripture alone, and Scripture with tradition. The Council of Trent, in its decree of 1546, taught that the saving truth and rule of conduct are contained in written books and in unwritten traditions that the apostles received from Christ or from the Holy Spirit and handed on. The Council ordered both to be received with the same piety and reverence. Historians and theologians have debated whether this wording means two separate sources. Many modern Catholic theologians argue that it does not, and the Second Vatican Council chose not to repeat the phrase that has been read as two sources.

The Second Vatican Council’s constitution on revelation, Dei Verbum, is the most important modern statement. It teaches that Scripture and tradition form one sacred deposit of the word of God entrusted to the church, flowing from the same divine well. This lesson follows its main points and then the objections. The aim is to state the position as Catholics would.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: One source, two forms

Dei Verbum 9 says that Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture flow from the same divine wellspring, merge in some way into a unity and tend toward the same end. Scripture is the word of God as written under the Holy Spirit’s inspiration. Tradition transmits the word of God, entrusted by Christ to the apostles, to their successors so that they can faithfully preserve, explain and spread it. The Council adds that the church does not draw its certainty about revelation from Scripture alone (Dei Verbum 9).

This sentence is the most disputed. Catholics read it to mean that revelation includes more than a written text, and that the church’s life gives a context for reading Scripture. Protestants read it as an unwarranted claim. It is useful to see that the Council does not say that tradition adds new revelations. After the death of the last apostle, the revelation is complete, and tradition is the continued handing on of the same thing.

Step 2: The magisterium

The Council teaches that the task of authentically interpreting the word of God, written or handed on, has been entrusted to the living teaching office of the church alone, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. It adds that this teaching office is not above the word of God but serves it (Dei Verbum 10). The magisterium teaches only what has been handed on, listens devotedly, guards it with God’s help and explains it faithfully.

The magisterium is exercised by the bishops with the pope as head. Catholics distinguish levels of teaching. Some teachings are defined as divinely revealed and must be believed with the assent of faith. Others are taught definitively and must be firmly held. Others call for religious submission of mind and will without being defined. Not every statement by a pope or a bishop carries the same weight, and Catholic theologians discuss how to tell which is which.

Step 3: Development of doctrine

Catholic teaching holds that doctrine can develop. John Henry Newman, in An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845), argued that ideas grow in the history of the church as a living thing grows, and offered tests of faithful development. The Council of Vatican II (Dei Verbum 8) says that the understanding of the realities and words handed down grows through contemplation by believers, through study, through spiritual experience and through the preaching of bishops.

Critics ask how a development can be told from a corruption. Catholics reply that the magisterium is the judge, guided by the Spirit, and that the same tests that Vincent of Lerins gave, continuity and the consent of the church, still apply. Examples that Catholics give include the clarification of the Trinity and of the two natures of Christ at the early councils. Examples critics give include the Marian dogmas of 1854 and 1950, which they say lack clear support in early sources. Catholic theologians reply that the roots are found in Scripture and early worship.

Step 4: The people of God

Lumen Gentium 12 teaches that the whole body of the faithful, who have an anointing from the holy one (1 John 2:20, 27), cannot err in matters of belief when they show universal agreement. This is the sensus fidei. It does not make the faithful a rival teacher. It means that the church’s teaching is received by the whole people. The magisterium consults and listens to the faithful, and the faithful accept the teaching of the bishops.

In 1854 Pope Pius IX consulted the bishops before defining the Immaculate Conception, and in 1950 Pius XII did the same before defining the Assumption. Catholic theologians point to these as examples of the pope drawing on the belief of the church. Critics reply that the consultation was limited.

Step 5: Objections and replies

Protestant objection: Scripture is the final norm, tradition is open to human error, and the magisterium makes itself a judge of its own case. Catholic reply: the Bible does not interpret itself, the canon itself rests on the church’s judgment, and the history of Protestant divisions shows the problem of individual interpretation.

Orthodox objection: the Catholic Church has overstated the role of the pope and developed doctrines, such as papal infallibility, without the agreement of the whole church. The Orthodox also object to some Western additions to the creed and to teaching on purgatory and the Immaculate Conception. Catholic reply: the primacy of Peter is in Scripture and in early practice, and the church is entitled to define doctrine with authority when questions arise.

Historical objection: Some definitions are hard to trace in the early sources. Catholic reply: the faith is received in seed form and understood more fully, and the early sources must be read with the development in mind.

  1. How does the Catholic Church describe the relation of Scripture to tradition in its own words?
  2. What does it mean to say the magisterium serves the word of God?
  3. How does the church distinguish development from change?
  4. What role do the faithful play in the transmission of the faith?
  5. Which Catholic teachings are defined and which are not?
  6. What is the strongest objection to this account, and how do Catholics answer it?

Examples

The Council of Nicaea

In 325 the bishops at Nicaea declared that the Son is of one substance with the Father. The word is not in Scripture. Catholics cite this as a model of how the church states in new words what was already believed, in response to Arius. Many Protestants and Orthodox Christians also accept the Nicene teaching as a faithful statement of Scripture.

Levels of teaching

A Catholic reads that a bishops’ conference has issued a statement on a social question. This is an example of teaching that deserves respect and careful consideration but is not a solemn definition. Catholics understand that a dogmatic definition of the Trinity and a pastoral letter have different weights. (A constructed example.)

Newman

Newman wrote his Essay on Development while still an Anglican, as he was moving toward the Catholic Church. He argued that Christianity must be able to develop if it is to be a living faith, and that later doctrines can be faithful unfoldings of what was held in the beginning. He was received into the Catholic Church in 1845.

Different perspectives

Catholic

Scripture and Tradition are one deposit of the word of God, and the magisterium authentically interprets both, serving and not ruling over them. The Catechism (paragraphs 74 to 100) sets out the teaching. Catholics hold that this structure is needed to preserve unity of faith over time and across the world.

Orthodox

Orthodox theologians agree with Catholics that tradition is essential and that Scripture should be read in the church. They object that Catholicism locates the final judgment in the pope and has moved beyond the faith of the first millennium. In their view the guarantee of truth lies in the whole church, in councils received by the people.

Protestant

Protestants affirm a high view of Scripture’s authority and generally accept the early creeds. They deny that the magisterium is a final interpreter and hold that the church’s teaching must be tested by Scripture. Some Protestants, especially Anglicans and Lutherans, give considerable weight to tradition but deny it equal authority.

Scholarly view

Historians of doctrine broadly agree that doctrine has changed in expression over time and that the early church had no equivalent of the modern magisterium. They disagree about whether the changes are best described as development, as in Newman, or as discontinuity. Many Catholic and non-Catholic historians use the idea of development, though they apply it differently.

Why it matters

To understand why Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants talk past one another, a student needs to know the Catholic position in its strongest form. It is more than the claim that the pope decides everything. It is a theory of how revelation is received, preserved and interpreted. A fair reader can then see where the others disagree and why.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Catholics think tradition is more important than the Bible.

Correction: Catholic teaching says Scripture and tradition form one deposit and the magisterium is subject to the word of God. Catholics read the Bible daily in the liturgy. The question is how Scripture is interpreted.

Misunderstanding: Everything the pope says is infallible.

Correction: Infallibility applies to solemn definitions of faith and morals, a narrow range. Catholics distinguish levels of teaching, and most papal statements are not definitions.

Misunderstanding: Catholic doctrine can change to match modern fashion.

Correction: Catholic teaching holds that revelation is closed and that doctrine may develop in understanding but not change in meaning. How to tell the difference is debated by theologians.

Misunderstanding: Trent taught that Scripture is incomplete.

Correction: Trent’s wording about written books and unwritten traditions has been read in more than one way. Many modern Catholic theologians argue that it does not teach two sources, and Vatican II chose different language.

Knowledge check

What does Dei Verbum say about Scripture, tradition and the magisterium?

It says Scripture and Tradition flow from the same divine wellspring and form one sacred deposit. The magisterium authentically interprets both and is not above the word of God but serves it, teaching only what has been handed on.

What is the magisterium?

It is the teaching office of the church, exercised by the bishops in communion with the pope. It interprets the word of God, written and handed on, and guards the deposit of faith. Its teaching has different levels of authority, and solemn definitions are rare.

How does Newman help explain the Catholic view of development?

He argued in 1845 that Christian doctrine develops like a living thing, unfolding what was present in the beginning, and he proposed tests to tell development from corruption. His work is widely cited by Catholics as a defense of faithful development of doctrine.

State one Protestant and one Orthodox objection to the Catholic account.

Protestants object that the magisterium acts as the judge of its own case and that Scripture should be the final norm. Orthodox object that the pope’s role as universal teacher and some doctrinal developments lack the agreement of the whole church. Both claim support in Scripture and early history.

Think it through

  1. Why might a church need a teaching office, and what are the risks of having one?
  2. How would you tell the difference between a development and a corruption of doctrine?
  3. What weight should the faithful’s sense of the faith carry?
  4. Which part of this account do you find most persuasive, and which most difficult?

Independent assignment

The Catholic position in its own words

In your notebook, read Dei Verbum 7 to 10 (in the Vatican II documents if available) and the Catechism paragraphs 74 to 100. Write a 300 to 400 word summary that a Catholic would accept as fair. Then add a separate 150 to 200 word paragraph on the strongest objection from the Orthodox or the Protestant side, stated as they would state it. Keep the work in your notebook.

Further study