The Madrid/Jones Dialogue on Scripture and the Church
debate
Douglas Jones and Patrick Madrid
July 1, 1997
Catholic writer Patrick Madrid and Reformed writer Douglas Jones were invited to ask each other a question for this dialogue on Scripture and the church and then given the opportunity to reply to the original essays. —eds. Patrick Madrid's Question: The Westminster Confession of Faith asserts, "The only infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself." I contend that this proposition is unworkable. Given the substantive doctrinal divisions among Protestant denominations that adhere to sola scriptura, can you explain how Scripture infallibly interprets itself and show post-Reformation examples of this? Doug Jones Response
We should always find ourselves with some sorrow when entering into these sorts of discussions. Many things beautiful in medieval Christendom have been lost, and both Rome and Protestantism share the blame. But the issues surrounding the authority of Scripture and the church are not light or dismissible, for they are stained with martyrs' blood and marked out by ancient covenantal threats. Most of the differences between classical Protestantism on one side and Rome and Constantinople on the other stem from a background clash between Hebraism and Hellenism. The Reformation was one of the fruits of the late medieval period's attempt to throw off the shackles of Hellenism and revive Hebraic, covenantal thinking. When classical Protestants, especially those of us in the Reformed tradition, gaze at the issues that separate these groups (redemption, authority, worship), many of us cannot help but see that Rome and the East have not yet extricated themselves from the dark labyrinths of Plato and Aristotle. Thematically, Protestants carried forth Athanasius's praise of the demise of Greek ...
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