The evangelical Cambellite tradition from which I came emphasized the Bible more than anything else as the definitive answer to all questions. This type of thinking goes back a long time, at least back to the Reformation’s famous idea of sola scriptura (that the Bible is authoritative and clearly understandable). Although I rarely publicly criticize such a core principle of my heritage as this, I believe that sola scriptura and everything it has become is deeply flawed and extremely dangerous.

The absolute authority of the Bible must be questioned by any educated thinker. The Bible is an anthology written and compiled over hundreds of years by dozens of authors and editors. It has been further transmitted and translated by thousands of monks and scholars. Even if God directly dictated the original text of what we now hold as cannonized scripture, his dictation would look significantly different from today’s Bibles. Of course, that did not occur. People wrote, edited, compiled, transmitted, and translated the Bible into what we have today.

Furthermore, the Biblical authors were bound by their own cultures and times. Cultural and moral relativism has been discussed on this blog extensively already, but I need to emphasize that these concepts directly affect the authority modern readers should grant to the Biblical text as the sole answer to contemporary moral questions.

The Bible is also not inherently and objectively understandable. Over the centuries and across the countries, different readers have arrived at strikingly different conclusions after reading identical passages from the Bible. This occurs at the highest levels between the most educated theologians of different Christian sects and it is even worse at the level of the lay person who often resorts to proof-texting and eisegesis.

Although they might appear to be at first, the above observations are not criticisms of the Bible itself. I want to understand the Bible for what it is and then get as much truth as possible from it, but I cannot make the Bible into something it is not. Understanding the Bible for what it brings to the table is the necessary first step in applying it to anything. The above are criticisms and cautions for those who lean too heavily on the doctrine of sola scriptura and who almost go so far as to worship the Bible itself, ignoring its limitations.

If the Bible itself cannot be the ultimate authority on every moral question, then what other sources are available? There are literally millions of other sources for moral advice, many of which add something useful to any modern discussion. Philosophers, writers, poets, other religions, theologians, friends, and scholars can sometimes help illuminate the great moral issues of our day in better ways than the Bible alone can. The Bible helps point Christians to a great deal of truth and has a lot of good advice for morality, but it does not answer every question and it may have provided answers that can be seen as tailored for a specific time instead of universal. We should use everything that is useful for addressing important moral questions and leave the primitive clinging to one single text to answer all questions. Christians who place their faith in the Bible instead of in God are making a very unwise trade.