Advice on Historical Studies?

[KrazyKaiju]

Hi all,

I’m interested in reading comprehensive papers, books, or other publications about:

1. The historicity of the Bible.
2. The historical evolution of the Church.
3. Explanations of the CCC.

After studying a bunch of philosophy, I’ve come to the belief that questions about God and the Church can’t be answered a priori. Rather, they need to be answered empirically.

Thanks in advance,
KrazyKaiju

 

[Nita]

Hi all,

I’m interested in reading comprehensive papers, books, or other publications about:

1. The historicity of the Bible.
2. The historical evolution of the Church.
3. Explanations of the CCC.

After studying a bunch of philosophy, I’ve come to the belief that questions about God and the Church can’t be answered a priori. Rather, they need to be answered empirically.

Thanks in advance,
KrazyKaiju

**1) The historicity of the Bible **-- have not done reading on this.

2) The historical evolution of the Church
I don’t know how much of a reader you are. Both of the ones I’ll mention consist of several volumes.

Warren Carroll has a 6 volume history of Christendom. He is a Catholic author.
amazon.com/Founding-Christendom-History-Vol/dp/0931888212

Jaroslav Pelikan - The Christian Tradition (not sure of the total number of volumes). He was a Lutheran at the time he wrote the books. I have only read Volume 4, - "Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300-1700). I found it very interesting. But I always kept in mind that the author was not coming from a Catholic perspective. Nevertheless, I found it quite objective, and upon finishing it, I remember wondering how he could “objectively” know all this and not become Catholic. I was not surprised to hear that he had subsequently converted to the Orthodox church. Wish he could have made the full step to the Roman Catholic Church.
It was some years ago that I read the book and always wanted to get his first volume. Think I’ll get busy and order it today.
amazon.com/Christian-Tradition-History-Development-Doctrine/dp/0226653803

I know there are shorter histories; perhaps others will have recommendations.

3) Explanations of the CCC
I would just suggest reading the CCC itself. The book is large, but it consists of 4 major parts and each part can kind of stand on its own. Start with Part 1 (#26-1065). Taking your time, read it straight through. It reads beautifully. If there’s something you’re unable to understand, just come here to the forum and ask. There are plenty of us around who would be glad to help.
You can proceed to the remaining parts later if you desire.

When the Catechism first came out, I tried to use it like an encyclopedia – just looking up particular topics. Seemed like I had to jump around all over the place to get the info. I was disappointed, and found the Catholic Encyclopedia or older catechisms much easier to use. Was ready to just relegate the new Catechism to the shelf when I thought perhaps I should just start at the front and read it through first (and I’m sure it was God who put that thought in my mind!). Awesome. Just love it now. And, now, also use it to reference topics - especially here on CAF.

 

[Stratiotes]

1. The historicity of the Bible.
   Well, not sure it is what you are thinking about but I think it would be a good foundation to start with ‘Behind’ the Text: History and Biblical Interpretation edited by Craig Bartholomew. It discusses the result of presuppositions in historical study quite extensively. And I think having the tools to identify presuppositions is paramount before diving into any one study of historicity of scripture.
2. The historical evolution of the Church.
   I would second Nita’s recommendations although I think Carroll finds it difficult to be entirely objective (though that does not discount him entirely).

Some shorter works (though still scholarly):
Early Christian Doctrines by J. N. D. Kelly (an Anglican, I believe)
and
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine by Cardinal John Henry Newman (A former Anglican Catholic convert)

1. Explanations of the CCC.
   Same recommendation as Nita

 

[patg]

1. The historicity of the Bible.

For this you can start with 2 church documents which are available online:

Dei Verbum and the *Instruction on the Historical Truth of the Gospels. *

Other good references include:

John Meier’s numerous volumes on the historical Jesus (such as A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus).

*And God Said What?: An Introduction to Biblical Literary Forms. *This book is the textbook for many Catholic adult education classes and covers a lot of historical questions (not just gospel related).

 

[Crumpy]

this is a footnote comment.

The Bible was taken as literal history for a long, long time. Then, particularly when historical criticism came along, maybe in the 18th century, a lot of doubts cropped up about using the Bible as history.

these three questions are MAJOR areas of study. I don’t know of a book comparable to The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, which offers a lot of breadth and depth in analysis of Catholic Biblical scholarship. The second or revised edition was published around 1992, and contains an enormous bibliography of technical references written in several languages. The book is the work of a group of experts.

This book might give you a birds eye view of the subjects, before you spiral down on particular topics.