190 Dialog: A Journal of Theology • Volume 55, Number 3 • Fall 2016 • September Theme Articles Sola Scriptura —A Hermeneutical Impossibility and a Doctrinal Necessity: Twenty-One Theses By Jan-Olav Henriksen Abstract : The following theses represent an attempt to delineate some of the contemporary basic conditions for maintaining the use of the sola Scriptura in the Lutheran churches. This must, I argue, be done without using it as a means for ignoring other types of information and experience than that which is contained in the Scriptures. I argue that sola Scriptura formulates what is necessary for salvation, but cannot be used to delineate or present all information that is necessary to live in the contemporary world and interpret all contemporary experience. Key Terms : Gospel as promise, fundamentalism, biblicism, hermeneutics, Bible 1. The reformers established the principle of sola Scriptura in order to safeguard the same concerns as the other “soli,” which the later Lutheran tradition formulated as a summary of its main concerns: solus Christus, sola gratia, sola fide. All of these principles were articu- lated in order to make sure that nothing but what the Scriptures witness about the gospel of Christ is the basis for justification and sal- vation. 2. Thus, sola Scriptura will maintain that the gospel is preached and taught without any ad- ditional requirements for the listener. No el- ement in tradition and no requirements put on the believer by other instances are condi- tions for salvation. In this way, the principle Jan-Olav Henriksen is Dean of Research and Professor of Philosophy of Religion at (MF) Norwegian School of Theology in Oslo. He is the author of many books, among the most recent of which are: Life, Love and Hope: God and Human Experience (Eerdmans, 2014) and, with Karl Olav Sandnes, Jesus as Healer: A Gospel for the Body (Eerdmans, 2016). of sola Scriptura is a necessary principle—a crit- ical principle against those who would com- promise the pure content of the gospel about justification by grace alone. 3. Thus, sola Scriptura implies that a Christian can have an open attitude toward the world, but needs to be restrictive as to what is in- cluded as the basis for his or her salvation. From this follows: 4. The only doctrinal element implied in the principle of sola Scriptura is that what the Scriptures say about justification and Christ is sufficient for salvation. Hence, the sola Scrip- tura principle must be understood with regard to the central content of the Scriptures about the conditions for justification, and not as C  2016 Wiley Periodicals and Dialog, Inc.