Post History

Part of the issue within Christianity is where various traditions turn for authority. For example:


 * **Protestant, non-denominational:** The Bible _alone_ (defined as the 66-book, traditional Protestant canon).
 * **Protestant, Lutheran:** This differs depending on the specific Lutheran denomination, but they tend to advocate "Scripture alone" as above but consider the _Lutheran Confessions_ (the set of documents is also somewhat differently defined by various groups) to be true and binding expositions of the Scriptures. Other _confessional_ denominations also have historical documents they consider to be binding interpretations of Scripture.
 * **Catholic:** Authority includes the Holy Roman Pontiff (the Pope), ecclesiastical councils and Sacred Scripture, the latter of which includes the deuterocanonical texts as part of the biblical canon. Beyond this, it depends on the specific rite (e.g., Latin, Byzantine/Ruthenian), as each rite has its own set(s) of canon law, ecclesiastical documents, etc.
 * **Eastern Orthodox:** This can also somewhat depend on the specific jurisdiction, but largely includes the ecumenical councils, Sacred Scripture (which includes even more texts than Roman Catholics and also considers the Greek Septuagint to be the authoritative Old Testament),  canon law, and patristic consensus (however defined).

As you can (hopefully) see:


 1. Christians don't agree on what constitutes "the Bible" (or "Scripture").
 2. Christians don't agree on what other historical councils, documents, etc. are authoritative (if any), and _how_ they are to be used within churches.
 3. There is an incredibly large array of opinions and perspectives within the Christian faith.

This makes it challenging to answer questions seeking a broad overview of Christian perspectives (particularly when some questions assume an authority model such as that of the first bullet). As such, another Christian community has required that questions asking about theology, doctrine, etc. specify a perspective from which they wish to hear. I think this is prudent.

Further, sometimes (largely evangelical) Protestants wish to hear "what the Bible says" about a specific topic, but assume an authority model (and which books constitute "the Bible" consistently with the first bullet). One other community uses a "biblical basis" tag to indicate these types of questions. I propose that such questions here are labeled as "non-denominational" (Protestant) or similar since they are essentially questions seeking answers assuming this authority model.