The Catholic Church has many avenues for teaching the word of God. This is a difficult task due to language barriers and variations in interpretations of various church documents. The complications of these interpretations are exampled in such terms as inspiration, inerrancy and canon. This essay will briefly describe these terms and attempt to shed some light on how the Catholic Church uses them in the interpretation of biblical documents.
The theology of inspiration is a difficult concept to define in the form of human language, in part, due to the nuances of the concept. The catholic faith teaches inspiration of the Bible as coming from God and as man has no common language with God, the translation of his word can never be as perfect as was intended. The Bible was not merely inspired or inspiring in the same sense that is imagined with the inspiration of an idea or a great work of art, it inspires people in that it is the word and representation of God; a revelation of God. Inspiration is therefor based on the word of God and passed on to man in the form of the ecclesiastical writings. Biblical inspiration cannot be described by an earthly language; it is best described as an opportunity presented to man that can be acted upon by mans gift of free will. Additionally, the bible inspires the reader in another fundamental way. Man is inspired by biblical curiosity to seek further understanding of God’s word (Durand).
This is not to say that the leaders of the Church cannot make new revelations or that the laws of the church cannot be clarified or modified for use in today’s society. New revelations can be made known by God whenever then need arises. These revelations are not new ideas or truths from God; they are me...
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...ew questions and situations occur that cannot ever be foreseen except from the omnipotent God and these circumstances will need to be answered for those of faith. The challenge is for the language of that communication to remain consistent, even in the light of advancement and clarity, so that future generations do not lose the true word of God.
Works Cited
Dunford, David. "Canon." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 10 Mar. 2014
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Durand, Alfred. "Inspiration of the Bible." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910. 10 Mar. 2014
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The four fundamental claims of the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Human beings exist in a relation to a triune God, God’s presence in the world is mediated through nature and reality, faith and reason are compatible, the dignity of the human being is inviolable and therefore the commitment to justice for the common good is necessary. However, the great books in the Catholic Intellectual tradition show that they represent these fundamental claims in a broad distinctive way. This essay will show that these readings better represent one of the fundamental claims, human beings exist in a relation with a triune God, from the view point of three great books from the bible, Genesis, Exodus and the Gospel of Matthew. The Bible clearly supports the
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For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
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intertextuality. The concept of intertextuality, however, is still controversial among scholars because of its diverse claims and emphases.102 In this study we will consider intertextuality because it is concerned with a shared meaning of biblical texts that makes communication available between them. In this way, intertextuality offers a surplus of theologically meaningful possibilities between the texts. There are two principle loci where some sort of conversation is operative: literary associations and the broader complex of theological
Answering these questions is the purpose of this essay. I begin by arguing that the Bible cannot be adequately understood independent of its historical context. I concede later that historical context alone however is insufficient, for the Bible is a living-breathing document as relevant to us today as it was the day it was scribed. I conclude we need both testimonies of God at work to fully appreciate how the Bible speaks to us.
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