Prof. Gregg Allison, Ph.D.: "Historical Theology, Ch.7: Sufficiency & Ne...

Like the ancient church, the medieval period believed in the sufficiency and necessity of Scripture: Gabriel Biel, surprisingly Thomas Acquinas, Rupert Deutz, Rupert of Deutz, Othlo of Sankt Emmeram, Jan Huss, Adalger, Duns Scotus, Hugh of St. Victor, and Lanfranc of Canterbury. Gabriel Biel: “All true instruction, all consolation, all exhortation, all devotion is understood through the Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, and it proceeds from hearing, from reading, from meditation, and from contemplation of the divine eloquence…The Word of the eternal God, holy Scripture, also proceeds from the mouth of God and indicates his own will, without which no one is able to live rightly with understanding. In this we learn how far away we are when approaching God, and how far away we have strayed from God…Only Holy Scripture teaches all that is to be believed and hoped and all other things necessary for salvation.” Sacri Canonis Misse Expositio Resolutissima (Basel 1510), lecture 71. Latin cited in Heiko Oberman, The Harvest of Medieval Theology: Gabriel Biel and Late Medieval Nominalism (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2000), 394. Adalger: “He who wishes to be with God always, must pray frequently and must read [the Bible] frequently; for when we prayer, we speak to God, but when we read, God is speaking with us.” Admonition to a Recluse, 13, in Pelikan, 3:120. Rupert of Deutz: “Whatever may be arrived at, or concluded from arguments, outside of that Holy Scripture…does not in any way belong to the praise and confession of Almighty God…. Whatever may be arrived at outside of the rule of Holy Scriptures, nobody can demand from a Catholic.” De Omnipotentia Dei, 27, in Tavard, 13. Rupert of Deutz: “Let us search for wisdom, let us consult sacred Scripture itself, apart from which nothing can be found, nothing said which is solid and certain.” Commentary on the Apocalypse, cited in Clark Pinnock, Biblical Revelation: The Foundation of Christian Theology (Chicago: Moody, 1971), 152. Othlo of Sankt Emmeram (1010-1072): “There is no need for us to add anything of doctrine to them [the Scriptures] nor to propound anything except what we have been taught by reading them.” Dialogue on Three Questions, 1, in Pelikan, 3: 122. Thomas Aquinas: “The truth of faith is sufficiently explicit in the teaching of Christ and the apostles.” Summa Theologica, 2nd pt. of pt. 2, q.1, art. 10. Duns Scotus: “…those things of which we must not be ignorant, but which we cannot know ourselves…sufficient holy Scripture contains the doctrine necessary for Christian pilgrims.” Ordinatio, 2, q.1, n.95-97, discussed in Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy, ca. 1520 to ca. 1725, vol. 2: Holy Scripture: The Cognitive Foundation of Theology, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003), 49.