Vi Type:
I have been doing a study on the topic of Justification, and I have come to the point where I need to read scholarly Catholic material. So if anyone has any suggestions they would be highly appreciated.
JMJ + OBT
Dear Vi Type,
Two good places to start when looking for scholarly writings and/or official Catholic teaching on most any subject having to do with Catholicism would be:
(1) The Catechism of the Catholic Church
(for older popular and/or “official” Catholic catechisms see The Nazareth Master Catechism)
(2) The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
(a.k.a the “old Catholic Encyclopedia”)
Keep well in mind that the tone of the 1913 C.E., owing to the era of American Catholicism in which the articles were composed and collected, can at times be agressive and controversial. But the scholarlship of the articles is on average of very high quality, by the standards of the 21st as well as 20th Century. In particular, see these articles: those under the heading
Grace;
Justification;
Sin;
Redemption;
Predestination.
An easy way to find paragraphs in the CCC (“Catechism of the Catholic Church”) that correspond to the topic you’re researching is to use the
index – scroll down to find “justification.” You can buy a
printed copy of the CCC (there are both hard and soft-bound editions, full and “pocket” sized; only the full-sized edition has the oh-so-wonderful scriptural index). By the way, if you read eight numbered paragraphs per day from the CCC, beginning with
#1, you will read the entire text in just under one year – it’s worth it if you really want to understand the “big picture” of the Catholic Church’s teaching on God, humanity, salvation …
Two additional books I would recommend are:
The Salvation Controversy
by Jimmy Akin
(popular style, but not unscholarly)
and
Not By Faith Alone
by Robert Sungenis
(there is debate as to whether it’s truly “scholarly;” this one will keep you very busy – 773 pages! Sungenis’ style is not soft-hitting, if you know what I mean)
One more:
The MOST Theological Collection is a great free on-line resource. Note well the columns on that page labeled “type” and “publication information.” Fr. Most basically donated to the pre-cursor of
CatholicCulture.org (which was called PetersNet) all of the Scripture
scholarship related notes, articles, essays, etc. he’d authored, and the rights to those documents, which were stored on his personal computer. (He made the donation a few years prior to his death.)
Those documents which are categorized as “Article” and “Printed” and such are rather well polished works. But quite a few, e.g. those
labeled “Notes,” are really pretty brisk and in a kind of literary “shorthand,” and that has to be kept in mind when reading them.
Here are two articles in the Most collection which you might enjoy:
Grace, Predestination and the Salvific Will of God: New Answers to Old Questions
A Biblical Theology of Redemption in a Covenant Framework
Have fun!
In Christ.
IC XC NIKA
