THE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE: Norma Normans in MKS™-Thronaxis

Abstract

Abstract The authority of Scripture stands as the single most consequential epistemological commitment within any theological framework, yet contemporary theology has rendered it structurally ambiguous, affirmed in confessional statements while functionally undermined by methodological practices that subordinate scriptural testimony to extra-biblical adjudicative criteria. Liberal theology elevates historical-critical method to magisterial status; postmodern hermeneutics dissolves textual authority into reader-response indeterminacy; and even confessional traditions that affirm sola Scriptura frequently lack the architectonic precision to specify how scriptural authority actually operates across diverse domains of inquiry. This paper argues that the Metadisciplinary Knowledge System™-Thronaxis (MKS-Thronaxis™) provides the structural architecture within which scriptural authority, as norma normans (the norming norm), can be formally articulated, operationally specified, and consistently maintained without collapsing into either fideistic biblicism or rationalistic reductionism. Situated within Stratum IV (Thronal Order) of Thronaxis Cosmology™ and proceeding through Grid IV (Theological-Hermeneutical Method), the argument locates Scripture's authority at the convergence of Axis I (Revelation) and Axis II (Inspiration) within Hierarchical Epistemology™. The paper develops four sustained arguments: it recovers the classical Protestant doctrine of scriptural self-authentication (autopistia) within the Epistemic Axes; it distinguishes norma normans authority from comprehensive sufficiency and hermeneutical self-evidence; it answers the objection of hermeneutical circularity through a structural-pragmatic response; and it demonstrates how norma normans functions operationally across all four Ontological Strata, norming the overarching epistemic architecture rather than adjudicating strata-specific mechanisms. The paper concludes that MKS-Thronaxis transforms the doctrine of scriptural authority from a confessional assertion into an architectonic principle with formal structural location, operational specificity, and domain-sensitive application.