Catholic Heritage Show W/ Dr. Estrada

Over a decade ago, a prominent Evangelical Protestant church historian set forth the claim that early Christian councils such as the ones that met Hippo (393), Carthage (397) and elsewhere merely recognized the canon of Scripture. They did not bestow authority, these scholars claim, on the books which are now part of the Bible. Instead, their decision to canonize the Scriptures reflected their larger desire to submit themselves to the authority of Scripture.  Their act of canonizing, this scholar argued, reflected their belief in sola scriptura, that is, that Scripture by itself defines the church’s doctrines and morals.   Are these claims true? Did the early councils merely recognize a certain number of books as belonging to the authoritative list of books that now constitute the Scriptures? And, did their canonizing of the Scriptures reflect their belief that their own ecclesial decisions, religious teaching and that of the church as a whole was subject to error?   In this episode I take a second to evaluat