Scripture and church tradition. In the last chapter, I introduced the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura and argued that Scripture must be our first resource for doing theology. Protestants see Scripture as coming, necessarily, before the authority of church and tradition. This is not a denial of the importance of tradition, but it is a judgment claim that we stand in need of an “external Word,” a revelatory authority from God that is outside us and able to correct us. Protestant doctrines of