Catholic Church on How to Read the Bible
By Andrew Willard Jones and Louis St. Hilaire
Dr. Andrew Jones holds a PhD in Medieval History from Saint Louis University and is an proficient on the Church of the Loftier Middle Ages. He is the author ofEarlier Church building and State: A Study of Social Society in the Sacramental Kingdom of St. Louis IX and the pioneer of the Formed In Christ series of faith germination texts, besides as the author of several books in this serial.
Louis St. Hilaire is the co-author of Testify of Things Unseen: An Introduction to Primal Theology and translator ofThe Literal Exposition of Isaiah: A Commentary by St. Thomas Aquinas (forthcoming from Emmaus Bookish). A graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, he works as a web developer and digital editor for the St. Paul Center.
Catholics are frequently criticized for the way we approach the Bible. These criticisms ordinarily come from two directions. From one direction some Protestant Christians, who disagree with Catholic doctrine apropos tradition and with the Catholic approach to Scripture, accuse the Church with neglecting Scripture. These charges come up through both scholarly debate and popular polemics (the latter often containing a bully bargain of simulated information). From some other direction, the Church is sometimes criticized by people who suppose that Catholics approach the Scriptures with blind faith—unthinkingly and unquestioningly believing things that that seem to contradict both science and reason.
Catholics, therefore, find ourselves in an interesting situation. We are simultaneously charged with paying Sacred Scripture too little attention and with paying it as well much attending. The truth, though, is that the Catholic Church pays Sacred Scripture a great bargain of attention, but it pays attention to it in the proper way.
Catholicism is soaked in Scripture, and the cardinal rite of Catholicism—the Mass—is profoundly biblical. It is not merely derived from the history of Israel, only information technology also uses Scripture throughout —bringing the Bible to life in a way not seen anywhere else. Likewise, Scripture is an run across with Jesus, the Word of God, and the Eucharist is taking the Discussion of God into our very selves! In the Mass, our run into with God is complete.
It's not just in the liturgy that Catholics encounter the Bible. Catholics use the Scriptures for the report of theology, for personal devotion and prayer, and for public prayer. Moreover, many Cosmic parishes offer Bible study groups and Vacation Bible School so that the true-blue non only encounter the Word of God but besides learn how to take their study of the Word deeper. Equally disciples of Christ, we are continually spurred on to a deeper noesis of Scripture, for, as St. Jerome reminds us, "Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ."
So where does the charge that Catholics don't read the Bible come from? This criticism originates from a certain Protestant point of view and information technology is based on various bits of half-truths or mistakes. Prior to the advent of the printing press (mid-1400s) and widespread literacy, it was true that most Catholics never read the Bible. But this was because nigh Catholics couldn't read anything; the majority of people were illiterate. Moreover, for those few who could read, Bibles were hard to come by; each 1 had to be painstakingly copied by hand.
Printing technology, as well as more widespread literacy rates, adult at the same time equally the Protestant Reformation. These developments aided the spread of the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura—the conventionalities that the Bible is the merely source of divine Revelation—equally well equally their conventionalities in the individual estimation of the Bible—the idea that every Christian can translate the Bible for himself. The Church rejected this new and Protestant understanding of the Scripture. The Bible, the Church building believed, was not the just source of revelation virtually God: God too revealed himself in nature and through Sacred Tradition. Cosmic catechesis, so, included truths not fatigued straight from the Bible. To sola scriptura Protestants, this looked like the Church was prioritizing human being-made traditions over biblical teaching. The Church's warning that the Bible was often hard to understand and its subsequent mandate that the faithful approach it with the guidance of the magisterium, looked every bit bad to Protestants. In their eyes, the Church was trying to keep the Bible from the true-blue or prejudice their estimation of it.
Likewise, unlike the Protestants, the Church maintained that biblical reading was non the just form of praiseworthy devotion. The Cosmic religion too embraced (and yet does) many devotional practices, from attending Mass to making the Manner of the Cross to reciting the Rosary. As nosotros have seen, none of these devotions are at odds with the Bible; in fact, they are profoundly scriptural. However, they differ from the individual reading and interpretation of the Bible advocated by the Protestant reformers.
Bated from these doctrinal issues, the widespread conventionalities that Catholics don't read the Bible does have some foundation in reality. For a long fourth dimension, much of the laity did not engage Sacred Scripture every bit much every bit they probably should have. However, what truth exists in these criticisms has been grossly overblown. The Church, specially in the twentieth century, has never tired of encouraging the faithful to read the Bible.
Another truth that has contributed to the perception that Catholics don't read the Bible is the fact that the Catholic Church is far larger than whatsoever unmarried Protestant community, and has an inclusive understanding of its membership. As the Church sees it, anyone who is baptized and has not formally repudiated the Church is Catholic. Accordingly, the Church is similar a nation, full of all kinds of people of varying degrees of education, piety, and enthusiasm. Many people who do non exercise their faith will, when asked, place themselves as Catholic. This is a wonderful characteristic of the Church. Catholicism has room for people in every stage of the spiritual journey—it is the "universal" Church, after all. But one of the consequences is that people finish up encountering Catholics who know very little about their faith and who have perhaps never opened a Bible.
All these factors have come together to create the common misconception that Catholics don't read the Bible and that the Church doesn't really desire them to. Yet, while Catholics don't approach the Bible in the same style as Protestants, the Scriptures nonetheless are of supreme importance in the life of the Church. All Catholics are encouraged to read and learn them.
Source: https://stpaulcenter.com/do-catholics-read-the-bible/
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