Anglicanism’s doctrinal framework exhibits an inherent epistemic paradox: while it prohibits the use of non-canonical books to establish doctrine (per Article VI), this prohibition cannot be derived from Scripture itself, which contains no self-authenticating teaching on canon or on limits to doctrinal authority; rather, the rule depends on the Church’s own judgment, which itself presupposes the authority it seeks to delimit, creating a self-referential structure in which ecclesial authority is exercised to regulate the exercise of authority. The Church simultaneously asserts Scripture as supreme for salvation while acknowledging that its own determinations define the boundaries of canonical applicability, resulting in a formally paradoxical system in which authority is real yet fallible, normative yet extrabiblical, and bounded by Scripture yet ultimately enforced through decisions that Scripture neither mandates nor commands.
