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The Catholic Understanding of Scripture 137
mately only understand the Bible through participatory observation. We are
caught in this hermeneutical circle --- and this is true for all forms of understanding.
4
Antique philosophical schools likewise saw themselves as ways of life.
Their teachings could not be grasped from a distance and from mere observation;
they had to be lived. Likewise, the Bible is an expression of a way of life. It
wishes to lead us to a form of spiritual practice or more precisely: to a form of
social practice. The principle of participatory observation is relevant in some
form for any kind of understanding. Buddhist texts, for instance, can only be
understood through practice of the same. They are an expression of a practical
form of life. Verbum Domini expresses it as follows: ‘‘Here we see the reason why
an authentic process of interpretation is never purely an intellectual process but
also a lived one, demanding full engagement in the life of the Church, which is
life ‘according to the Spirit’ (Gal 5:16)’’ (38). The first and foundational principle
of Catholic biblical hermeneutics therefore would be: ‘‘The Holy Spirit, who gives
life to the Church, enables us to interpret the Scriptures authoritatively. The
Bible is the Church’s book, and its essential place in the Church’s life gives rise
to its genuine interpretation’’ (29).
2. The Council’s Biblical Hermeneutic: A Directive to
be Appropriated
As was said previously, the Constitution on Divine Revelation of the Second
Vatican Council, Dei Verbum, which presented the fundamentals of biblical interpretation
in the Church, brought with it full acceptance of historical-critical
exegesis in the Catholic Church. The classical principles of Scriptural hermeneutics
that were inherited from the Early Church, however, were not thereby relinquished.
They were called to mind and, to a certain extent, simply placed alongside
the model of modern Scriptural interpretation, remaining detached from the
latter. Yet, post-conciliar reception of Dei Verbum almost exclusively focused on
the historical-critical aspect of Scriptural interpretation, whereas traditional
principles such as the unity of Scripture, the multiple senses of Scripture, and
the orientation according to the regula fidei largely fell into oblivion. As a theologian,
Joseph Ratzinger had often criticized a one-sided reception of Dei Verbum. 5
The Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini reminds us of this in the following
words: ‘‘On the one hand, the Council emphasizes the study of literary genres
4
Cf. Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger, ‘‘Kontemplatives Schriftverständnis --- Zur Wechselbeziehung
von kontemplativer Übung und Schriftverständnis,’’ Studies in Spirituality
17 (2007): 115---25.
5
Cf. Ludger Schwienhorst-Schönberger, ‘‘Zwei antagonistische Modelle der Schriftauslegung
in Dei Verbum?,’’ in Erinnerung an die Zukunft: Das Zweite Vatikanische Konzil, ed.
Jan-Heiner Tück (Freiburg: Herder, 2013), 517---29.