Phillip A. Davis, Jr. | Daniel Lanzinger | Matthew Ryan Robinson (Eds.): What Does Theology Do, Actually? (Leseprobe)

Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger (Austria)
The Catholic Understanding of
Scripture
Introduction
To explain Catholic biblical hermeneutics is not very difficult, since there are
several official documents of the Church that treat this subject. The purpose of
this chapter is to survey several important emphases that emerge from these
documents.
The first church document to deal exclusively with questions regarding biblical
interpretation, is the encyclical Providentissimus Deus of Pope Leo XIII, published
in 1893. At the time, historical-critical exegesis was reaching its first
pinnacle. Catholic theology was confronted with the question of its own assessment
of this new trend in biblical studies. It had to decide what it could draw
from this method, but it also had to determine which aspects of it were to be
rejected as being in opposition to the Bible as well as to Catholic faith. Since
then, questions of Scriptural interpretation have repeatedly been dealt with in
official Church documents. The next important encyclical on this theme was
Divino afflante Spiritu, published in 1943 by Pope Pius XII. It is seen as a cautious
acknowledgement of modern historical-critical exegesis. The complete and
comprehensive acknowledgement of modern exegesis, however, can be found in
the Constitution on Divine Revelation of the Second Vatican Council, titled Dei
Verbum, which was promulgated in 1965.
Furthermore, there are several important documents that were published by
the Pontifical Biblical Commission. This commission was constituted in 1902 by
Pope Leo XIII. Its roundabout thirty members are biblical scholars from many
countries. Their task is to promote biblical studies and support and advise the
Magisterium in matters concerning biblical scholarship. One of its most recent
documents is titled The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church ---- and, we should
note, it is not merely ‘‘The Interpretation of the Bible’’ but ‘‘The Interpretation of
the Bible in the Church’’.