The Authority and Interpretation of the Bible

In sixteenth-century Europe, with the formation of the Renaissance and humanism and the consequent weakness and decline of the Catholic Church, a religious reform movement emerged and important developments in thought and politics took place. The aim of this movement was to revive the original traditions of the church and its slogan was to return to the Bible. Achieving this goal required the interpretation of the Bible and the struggle against the perverted teachings and superstitions of Christianity through the teachings of the Catholic Church. Leaders of the Reformation, such as Luther, believed that the Bible belonged to all people and that anyone could use and interpret it to the best of their ability. Such views gave rise to various interpretive approaches, and Christian theologians each sought to interpret the Bible on the basis of their own accepted principles. Due to the differences in the foundations of the theologians, various interpretations of the Bible were formed, although there are similarities between these interpretations. In this dissertation, we seek to examine the views of contemporary Protestant theologians on the interpretation of the Bible and the criticisms leveled at these views.