Muller著/骆鸿铭翻译
Muller 在他的书Post Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, vol. II. （p. 345）中说：
“The
strongly worded arguments of Protestant theologians of both the Reformation and
orthodox eras against the idea of a coequal authority of Scripture, tradition,
and church, typically summarized by the phrase sola Scriptura, must never be
taken as a condemnation of tradition or a denigration of the authority of the
church as a confessing community of believers. The Reformation took as its
point of departure the late medieval debate over the relation of Scripture to
tradition and assumed that tradition stood as a subordinate norm under the
authority of Scripture and deriving its authority from Scripture. This
assumption of the fundamental value and rectitude of the church’s faith insofar
as it was genuinely grounded on the biblical Word allowed place in the
Protestant mind both for a use of tradition and for a churchly use of
confessions and catechisms as standards of belief.”
当改教家提出『唯独圣经』时，他们不是要完全否定传统（这是很多基督徒的误区）--路德、加尔文都承袭了许多中世纪的神学观念，引用许多古代教父的著作；他们也各自写下要理问答（有教会权柄的对圣经教义的总结），教导当时的教会。唯独圣经只是提醒我们，不应该过于抬高传统（像天主教一样，把传统和圣经等同起来，具有相同的权柄）。正确的看法是：信条/传统的权柄次於圣经；但是只要它们是忠于圣经的，它们对教会中的信徒就有权柄——虽然这个权柄要伏在圣经之下。今天基督徒的问题是不知道传统，以至于不会使用传统；甚至贬低传统，否定信条在教会中的作用。基督徒的读经如果没有信条/传统作为框架，很容易就变成我爱怎样读圣经，就怎样读圣经。我们在查经时都常常听到这句话：我认为这这节圣经应该这样解释。讲话的人不需要先读过其他圣徒的解释，然后总结得出自己的看法，而是凭自己的“亮光”，就解释起圣经，以自己的解释为最高的权威。这也反映后现代社会的处境：没有权威；自主/自法（autonomy）--我自己就是最高的权威。这是一个亟需基督徒反省的观念。