The Five Solas

Abstract

Luther’s reforming activity may be explained according to the five principles of the Protestant Reformation—sola Scriptura, sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus, and soli Deo gloria—, and this specific perspective is apt to evince why Luther as a religious reformer was so concerned with the issue of education. The five principles under analysis structure both the new theological doctrine emerged in the sixteenth century, and the Reformer’s pedagogical discourse, constituting the point of departure for the accurate comprehension of the reason why Luther pleaded so passionately in favour of mass literacy and implicitly the organisation of a schooling system including the children from poor families. Luther stressed the study of languages in order to provide every Christian with direct access to the message of the Bible containing the salvific and eternal truth. Starting from these principles we have the opportunity to understand once more the Reformer’s attitude towards the Church and the school, the translators’ work and the scholars’ study. And on the basis of those principles as well can we better realise why Luther firmly rejected certain religious practices that he deemed as wrong, and distanced himself from all conceptions contrary to the Bible.