How to Talk to Protestants about Authority

In this post, I discuss how to talk to Protestants about authority from a Catholic perspective to increase mutual understanding.

“What seems to me white, I will believe black if the hierarchical Church so defines.” — Ignatius of Loyola, The Spiritual Exercises

“In the absence of any definitive magisterial pronouncement concerning which of these options (or even what range of options) could be considered authentically catholic, it was left to each theologian to reach his own decision in this matter. A self-perpetuating doctrinal pluralism was thus an inevitability.” — Alister E. McGrath, The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation

Protestants and Catholics hold very different views of theological authority. Protestants point to Scripture alone, whereas the Catholic position is more complex and nuanced, relying on the “whole of the Church’s Tradition.” Such Tradition includes “Sacred Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, the liturgy, and the Church’s Magisterium.”

While I will devote another article exclusively to the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura, for now it is important to understand how to talk to Protestants about authority and the common ground Protestants and Catholics share.

Authority of Scripture

When speaking with Protestants, appealing to a common source of authority will go far in promoting understanding and agreement. Both Protestants and Catholics accept Scripture as divinely inspired, and so Scripture should serve as the starting point in any discussion about religious authority.

Protestant theology provides room for a large number of scriptural interpretations to coexist. Protestants are therefore accustomed to accepting different theological systems as valid interpretations of Scripture, even where they personally disagree with the conclusions such theologies present.

Therefore, by grounding a discussion of Catholic doctrine in Scripture, Catholics can gain at least reluctant acceptance of the validity of their beliefs. This is the first step in building understanding, particularly among evangelicals with their history of suspicion of anything Roman.

The Church Fathers

Protestants tend to idealize the early Church, viewing it as having existed before doctrinal corruption set in. The Apostolic Fathers and the Ante-Nicene Fathers therefore carry weight with Protestants in a way that medieval scholastics or modern magisterial documents do not.

Catholics can leverage this by grounding arguments in the Fathers — Ignatius of Antioch on the bishop, Irenaeus on apostolic succession, Cyprian on the unity of the Church, Augustine on the sacraments. These figures speak from the same historical period that Protestants themselves treat as the Christian gold standard, and they consistently witness to recognizably Catholic doctrine and practice.

The Catholic Method

Catholics approach theology communally rather than individualistically. The Church predates the biblical canon by centuries, so the earliest Christians relied on the oral teaching of the apostles and their successors — a process Scripture itself validates (2 Thessalonians 2:15).

By emphasizing your high regard for Scripture first, you establish that Tradition supplements rather than replaces it. Tradition, on the Catholic view, is the living context in which Scripture is received and interpreted across generations — not an additional pile of doctrines bolted on after the fact.

The Goal

Protestants will not necessarily adopt the Catholic methodology, but conversations framed this way tend to produce understanding rather than suspicion. The goal is not to win an argument in a single sitting; it is to make Catholic claims intelligible inside a Protestant frame of reference.

Effective teaching requires adapting to the culture and context of the listener. Protestantism and Catholicism are, in real ways, distinct theological cultures. They require different doors of approach, even when the destination is the same.

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