What Happened to Sola Scriptura ? How the Bible Was Used in the Fight for Women Priest and Bishops in the Anglican Communion
Abstract
In the article Author examines the traditional meaning of the formula sola Scriptura in the Anglican Church in the epoch of Reformation and confronts it with now-a-days use of the Bible in the process of decision-making in the matter of Church life and doctrine. The sample of this process is the adoption of women’s priestly and episcopal ordination in the Anglican Communion and especially in the Church of England.
Christian denominations being reciprocally connected, the decisions taken in one confession do matter for the rest of the Christendom. This is proved by the substantial change introduced in the Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue by the unilateral decisions of Anglicans to ordain women. The questioned decisions were taken however on the improper hermeneutics of biblical texts and on the presuppositions leading to dangerous intellectual short-cut. Thus the line of argumentation issued by Anglicans from the Bible omits what the Roman Catholic really stands for. The equal dignity of men and women proved by the biblical texts has never been denied by the Catholics. The argument important for the Catholics that the Church cannot change the will of Christ towards ordination has been simply by-passed by moving this subject from divine to human law.
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