 It was not until the Protestant Reformation that the Bible started to take on its unique central position, as the great Reformers – especially Luther and Calvin – stressed the need to go by scripture alone and not by what they took to be the overly rich traditions of the Catholic Church. But even they were doubtful about totally literalistic readings. For Luther, justification by faith was the keystone of his theology, and yet the Epistle of Saint James seems to put greater stress on the need for good works. He referred to the gospel as ‘right strawy stuff.’ (Wengert 2013). Calvin likewise spoke of the need for God to accommodate His writings to the untutored public – especially the ancient Jews – and hence of the dangers of taking the Bible too literally in an uncritical sense. The radical branch of the Reformation under Zwingli always put primacy on God’s speaking directly to us through the heart, and to this day one finds modern-day representatives like the Quakers uncomfortable with too-biblically centered an approach to religion. 