The Pope, The Bible, And the Blogosphere

An interesting point.  Benedict--a pope of the Word of God:

...what if you were to ask the pope, "Holy Father, what is the top priority for your papacy?" What do you suspect he might say?

Well, you don't have to wonder; he's answered the question...

“Leading men and women to God, to the God who speaks in the Bible: this is the supreme and fundamental priority of the Church and of the Successor of Peter at the present time.”[1]

Leading people to "the God who speaks in the Bible"—that's the pope's chief aim....

Yesterday, then, was like the icing on the cake.

Pope Benedict released a 200 page document laying out in exhaustive detail the Church’s teaching on Scripture, Verbum Domini. The document is a follow-up—almost three years after the fact!—to the Synod on Scripture he convened in 2008.

As I explained yesterday,this is a historic document. The last major papal document on Scripture was published 57 years ago (Divino afflante Spiritu [1943]). The last major magisterial document outlining Church teaching on Scripture was Dei Verbum, a document of the second Vatican Council--dated to 1965, 45 years ago!

Rome Reports explains, this is "the most important [Church] document on Scripture since Vatican II."...


Related Links:

• Pope Benedict XVI: Theologian of the Bible | Fr. Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J.
• Historical-Critical Scripture Studies and the Catholic Faith | Michael Waldstein
• Introduction to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's God's Word: Scripture, Tradition, Office | Peter Hünermann and Thomas Södin
• God, The Author of Scripture | Preface to God and His Image: An Outline of Biblical Theology | Fr. Dominique Barthélemy, O.P.
• Going Deeper Into the Old Testament | An Interview with Aidan Nichols, O.P.
• The Pattern of Revelation: A Contentious Issue | From Lovely Like Jerusalem | Aidan Nichols, O.P.
• Origen and Allegory | Introduction to History and Spirit: The Understanding of Scripture According to Origen | Henri de Lubac
• How To Read The Bible | From You Can Understand the Bible | Peter Kreeft
• Introduction to The Meaning of Tradition | Yves Congar, O.P.
• The Bible Gap: Spanning the Distance Between Scripture and Theology | Fr. Benedict Ashley, O.P.
• The Divine Authority of Scripture vs. the "Hermeneutic of Suspicion" | James Hitchcock
• Enter Modernism | From Truth and Turmoil: The Historical Roots of the Modern Crisis in the Catholic Church | Philip Trower
• Singing the Song of Songs | Blaise Armnijon, S.J.