Martin Luther on the living word: Rethinking the principle of sola scriptura

Abstract

In this article I offer a reading of Martin Luther's hermeneutic within the context of contemporary Lutheran attempts to revise a biblicist interpretation of the sola scriptura principle. My proposal is that Luther's interpretation of scripture and tradition is often more dynamic than it has been remembered, and has something to offer a critical theological hermeneutics. Luther might have spoken about sola scriptura, but he generally did not practise it. Rather, he drew upon the tradition, and he insisted on the need to relate an interpretation of scripture to the reality of the present hearer. He spoke of scripture alone when he was at his most defensive and polemical, and when addressing the doctrinal question about the limits of the church's teaching authority over scripture's authority. Certainly, Luther put scripture first and last, but what I suggest is the most telling characteristic of his hermeneutic is that he emphasized the nature of the gospel as a living word in distinction from the written text.