Prima Ecclesia: Revisited
Prima Ecclesia
By Laurence Gonzaga
For many years now I've been sharing a concept which I don't think has been coined or written on. I'm thinking of finally writing something about it in a brief booklet. It's probably not worth the effort to get it printed. It's a simple enough concept.
The Protestant Reformation had it's doctrine of sola scriptura, that the Bible is the sole/only rule of faith for the Christian.
Protestant Calvinist Dr. James White claimed that Catholics practiced what he coined to be sola ecclesia, that the Church alone has the authority.
In a Catholic debate in the 90s, Catholic apologist Patrick Madrid explained the concept he called prima scriptura, that the primary authority is the Sacred Scriptures. His Catholic teammates didn't agree to endorse such a concept.
In a recent debate between Trent Horn and Gavin Ortlund, Trent Horn used the phrase "prior, not higher" of Scripture.
I disagree.
If anything is prior, Sacred Tradition is prior to the Sacred Scriptures. This fact is actually in Scripture.
See 2 Thessalonians 2:15
Sola ecclesia is not accurate as the Church is limited by the authoritative contents of the Sacred Scriptures and Sacred Tradition.
Prima scriptura is not accurate because written Scripture is actually a product of oral Tradition, so, if anything is first, between Scripture and Tradition, it's definitely Tradition.
Therefore, I propose the concept of Prima Ecclesia.
My rationale is simple. Scripture is a product of Tradition. Tradition is guarded and transmitted by its custodian, the teaching authority of the Church that Christ founded, the Catholic Church.
Before you know the Scriptures to be truly the word of God, you must first acknowledge that the custodians who gave us those Scriptures are authoritative and reliable and are vested with Divine Authority.
In other words, you have to trust the messenger first, before you trust the message.
And so...
The authority of the Church comes first.
Prima Ecclesia.
If you want to hear me explain it much slower, then watch this video. :-)
And my 2020 coining of "Prima Ecclesia":
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