A
Acapiteadcalcem
Guest
I’m certainly not disputing that there may be things in Genesis that actually happened; Catholics are free to believe in the historicity of certain events described in Genesis, but this is not the intent of the Book of Genesis, which is ultimately about the incarnation of Christ (see Ratzinger, Joseph Cardinal, Foundations and Approaches of Biblical Exegesis and Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church).Well, let me “leap in”…
The “literality” of the first two chapters of Genesis (in other words, “was it really a literal six-day Creation”) is still an area of legitimate speculation, as long as nothing goes against Church doctrine or the rest of the Bible. My own post merely reflects my own opinions.
The nature of the Flood, too, has been debated by some, but there is substantial direct and indirect evidence to suggest that something much like the Biblical flood took place.
The life-spans of the generations before Noah are also considered “symbolic” by some, though their gradual decline can also be taken as evidence of a “natural” process - or, better, of the gradual corruption and death that entered the world because of Adam’s sin. Heck, we even have scientists today (such as Ray Kurzweil - though he is by no means an “authoritative” source) who tell us that long lifespans are a distinct possibility in theory. “For nothing is impossible with God”.
But apart from this, the majority of Genesis deals with historical events and real people. Adam, Eve, Cain, Abel, Seth, Methuselah, Noah are all real people and not just “metaphors” or “literary devices”. Similarly, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Esau and Jacob’s twelve sons are all historical figures. So, while some small portions of the book of Genesis are open to “scientific speculation” (within the limits of what the Church prescribes), the vast majority of it is historical details and narratives from the antiquity of human history. Surely this counts as a “literal” sense. It is difficult to divorce the “literal” from the “theological” sense, when the latter flows from the former.
As for distinctions, there clearly is a distinction to be made between ‘literal’ and ‘theological’. There two entirely different categories of meaning; one referring to interpretation, the latter referring to a Divine Science.
“The “literalism” championed by the fundamentalist approach actually represents a betrayal of both the literal and the spiritual sense, and opens the way to various forms of manipulation, as, for example, by disseminating anti-ecclesial interpretations of the Scriptures… It [literalism] fails to recognize that the word of God has been formulated in language and expression conditioned by various periods.” (Pope Benedict, Verbum Domini).
As for leaping in, please do…that’s what the forum is for. However, my reply to the original post was offered in response to a question about Creationism, and so I would have expected my reference to Genesis to be understood in that light.
Pax.