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THE CATHOLIC APPROACH TO SCRIPTURE
AND FUNDAMENTALISM
Copyright © 2008 Kay Murdy

CATHOLIC BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION

The Catholic position on Biblical interpretation of Scripture has been taught in the last decades of the nineteenth through the twentieth century. In his encyclical, Providentissimus Deus, Pope Leo XIII (1893) recognized the value of some scholarly advances in mainstream Protestant research. He pointed out that the biblical authors, who shared the "scientific" views of their own times, did not teach answers to problems raised by the natural sciences of our times. Nevertheless, Pope Leo insisted on the Latin version (not the original Hebrew and Greek) as a basis of translation and on the traditional interpretations of scripture.

• Mid-Twentieth century, the Catholic Church drastically changed its position on the Scriptures. In his encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu (1943), Pope Pius XII judged that it was safe for Catholic scholars to take up the methods previously forbidden: translations from the original Hebrew and Greek, and the recognition that the Bible includes many different literary forms or genres, not just history.

• At the beginning of the Second Vatican Council in 1962, the preliminary document on the sources of revelation sent out by the Holy Office before the council was rejected and sent back by Pope John XXIII for thorough rewriting. "The Historical Truth of the Gospels" - Instruction of the Roman Pontifical Biblical Commission (1964) became the basis of the final Vatican II document on Scripture Dei Verbum, in Latin, or "Word of God," written in 1965 (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, 1965).
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• The Biblical Commission approach steered Catholics away from a literalist approach to the Bible stating:

The fundamentalist approach is dangerous, for it is attractive to people who look to the Bible for ready answers to the problems of life. It can deceive these people, offering them interpretations that are pious but illusory, instead of telling them that the Bible does not contain an immediate answer to each and every problem. Without saying as much in so many words, fundamentalism actually invites people to a kind of intellectual suicide. It injects into life a false certitude, for it unwittingly confuses the divine substance of the biblical message with what are in fact its human limitations.

That is about as strong a statement we can get from the Church about fundamentalism and the potential of abusing the Bible to get simplistic answers to complex questions. 

Dei Verbum affirms that the books of Scripture "Teach firmly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted to put into the sacred writings for the sake of our salvation" (DV 3:11).

The emphasis must be placed upon the words "for the sake of our salvation." Inerrancy of the Bible is relevant only insofar as it teaches us the truth about God and God’s plan for our lives. The Bible is not to be read as a text book of natural science or history. Biblical inerrancy does not pertain to those things that are not matters of salvation. Dei Verbum urges the interpreters of Sacred Scripture: "in order to see clearly what God wanted to communicate to us, to carefully investigate what meaning the sacred writers really intended and what God wanted to manifest by means of their words" (DV 3:12). The Church gives guidance on Biblical interpretation and fosters good critical Biblical scholarship to do that. 

FUNDAMENTALIST VIEWS

For all their talk about the Catholic Church being "rule-laden," there are no Christians who operate in a more regimented manner than Fundamentalists. Fundamentalists have proved remarkably successful in passing their beliefs on to their children. Their success is partly due to their discipline. Their rules, which are often non-biblical rules, extend not just to religious practices, but to facets of everyday life. Most people are familiar with their strictures on drinking, gambling, dancing, and smoking. Not to attend services on Sunday, not to participate in Bible studies and youth groups, not to dress and act like everyone else in the congregation means being ostracized, a silent invitation to conform or to worship elsewhere.

The way that fundamentalists justify their exercise of influence and power in society is that God is on their side, and needs their efforts to see that God's work is done. Of course, every religious fundamentalist makes the same claim. Fundamentalism often justifies hatred in the minds of its adherents. The idea that God hates the same people you do is particularly gratifying in that it makes hatred not only acceptable, but somehow approved and even encouraged by God. This is undoubtedly the most dangerous aspect of fundamentalism.

This is seen most clearly in extreme fundamentalist Islamic sects, which routinely justify terrorism and murder as being "God's will." Of course, Islamic fundamentalism isn't alone. There are also extreme Christian Fundamentalists who believe they know the will of God. When anyone figures that God is on his or her side, almost anything can be justified. The catastrophe of 9/11, and the bombings of abortion clinics and gay bars has underlined how far this self-justification can take the extreme fundamentalist. Even murder has been justified by those claiming the authority of God, and believe that they are right in their actions.

When people take such an arrogant approach to religion, without being willing to understand another person's viewpoint, it becomes very easy to believe that they know what's right for everyone else as well. When they believe that they know what is best for everyone else, it is a very short leap to the feeling that they have the right, if not the responsibility to impose on others their point of view.

Nevertheless, despite the criticism Fundamentalists sometimes receive, they do undertake the praiseworthy task of adhering to certain key Christian tenets in a society that has all too often forgotten. Fundamentalists found ways to address the religious concerns of common people. Fundamentalism is an effort by earnest folk to retain a place for old fashioned values in a rapidly modernizing world. When they experienced apprehension or even outright fear as they faced the future, instead of adapting to a changing world, fundamentalists looked backward to find resources for dealing with the troubling changes in the present.

Dei Verbum

It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his will . . . By this revelation, the invisible God, from the fullness of his love, addresses humankind as his friends (Dei Verbum, #2).

Catholics have a strong tradition that is open to a sense of mystery in God’s revelation. It is the idea that everything in the Bible is not tied up in a neat package and explained thoroughly, as if we can rely on the Bible to resolve all of our problems, and answer all of our questions. Not every passage can be interpreted with certainty. Sometimes we just need to acknowledge that we don’t know, as we continue to wrestle with it. We have to be open to the mystery that is there in the Bible. Our understanding of God through the Bible grows as our perspective grows. 

The process of revelation continues in the life of the Church and in each individual as we struggle to deepen our understanding of God's word and apply it to situations we encounter today. The Bible is not a history book about events that happened long ago. The Word of God is not just ink on paper relegated to a museum, but through the Holy Spirit, the Bible is God's living word for all ages. John writes:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. . . . And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth (John 1:1-5,14).

What we are saying is that the Bible is the Word of God in human words. We have this in our Christology of Jesus Christ who is both human and divine. In the same way that we hold Jesus’ humanity and his divinity in balance, that is the challenge when we consider the Bible -- human words written from an historical context inspired by God.

QUESTION: How does my Catholic understanding of the Bible help me to understand the problems of today's world? Does it help me in my relationship to God? Does it help me to understand myself and my relationships with others? Does it help me to appreciate the Liturgy and the Sacraments?