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S i d e b a r
MATERIAL AND FORMAL SUFFICIENCY
By JAMES AKIN
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This Rock
Volume 4, Number 10
 October 1993 
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MANY Protestants, including James White, have
difficulty understanding the Catholic distinction between the material
and the formal sufficiency of Scripture. For Scripture to be materially
sufficient, it would have to contain or imply all that is needed for
salvation. For it to be formally sufficient, it would not only have
to contain all of this data, but it would have to be so clear that
it does not need any outside information to interpret it.
Protestants call the idea that Scripture is clear the
perspicuity of Scripture. Their doctrine of sola scriptura
combines the perspicuity of Scripture with the claim that Scripture
contains all the theological data we need.
It is important to make these distinctions because,
while a Catholic cannot assert the formal sufficiency (perspicuity)
of Scripture, he can assert its material sufficiency, as has
been done by such well-known Catholic theologians as John Henry Newman,
Walter Kaspar, George Tarvard, Henri de Lubac, Matthias Scheeben,
Michael Schmaus, and Joseph Ratzinger.
French theologian Yves Congar states, "[W]e can
admit sola scriptura in the sense of a material sufficiency
of canonical Scripture. This means that Scripture contains, in one
way or another, all truths necessary for salvation. This position
can claim the support of many Fathers and early theologians. It has
been, and still is, held by many modern theologians." . . . [At
Trent] it was widely . . . admitted that all the truths necessary
to salvation are at least outlined in Scripture. . . . [W]e find fully
verified the formula of men like Newman and Kuhn: Totum in Scriptura,
totum in Traditione, `All is in Scripture, all is in Tradition.'
.. `Written' and `unwritten' indicate not so much two material
domains as two modes or states of knowledge" (Tradition and
Traditions [New York: Macmillian, 1967], 410-414).
This is important for a discussion of sola scriptura
because many Protestants attempt to prove their doctrine by asserting
the material sufficiency of Scripture. That is a move which does no
good because a Catholic can agree with material sufficiency. In order
to prove sola scriptura a Protestant must prove the different
and much stronger claim that Scripture is so clear that no outside
information or authority is needed in order to interpret it. In the
debate James White apparently failed to grasp this point and was unable
to come up with answers to the charge that his arguments were geared
only toward proving material sufficiency.
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