Five solae

The three, four or five solae (Latin: quinque solae from the Latin sola, lit. "alone"; occasionally Anglicized to five solas) of the Protestant Reformation are a foundational set of Christian theological principles theorized to be central to the doctrines of justification and salvation as taught by the Lutheran, Reformed and Evangelical branches of Protestantism, as well as in some branches of Baptist and Pentecostalism.

Each sola represents a key belief in these Protestant traditions that is putatively distinct from the theological doctrine of the Catholic Church, although they were not assembled as a theological until the 20th century. The Reformers are known to have only stated two of the five solae clearly. Even today there are differences as to what constitutes the solae, how many there are, and how to interpret them to reflect the Reformers' beliefs.

History

According to theologian Volker Leppin, while the sola-formulations can be found in medieval theology, these did not imply the sharp exclusiveness or contrast that Martin Luther employed; they referred to a primary or activating component, for example "their sola gratia did not exclude the presence of meritorious human works."

Martin Luther's thelogical development in the 1510s has been characterized a progression of solae as logical consequences: first solus Christus, then sola gratia, then sola fide, finally sola scriptura.

The solae were not systematically articulated together as a set of five until the 20th century; however, sola gratia and sola fide were used in phrases by the Reformers themselves. In 1554, for example, Philip Melanchthon wrote, "sola gratia justificamus et sola fide justificamur" ("only by grace do we justify and only by faith are we justified"). All of the solae appear in writings by the Protestant Reformers, but they are not catalogued together by any.

In 1916, Lutheran scholar Theodore Engelder published an article titled "The Three Principles of the Reformation: Sola Scriptura, Sola Gratia, Sola Fides" ("only scripture, only grace, only faith").