I just got told by RC person that Bible study is "Protestant"

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Wishing that every Catholic and Christian could learn more from the Bible. Our St. Pius X Parish’s Bible Study group is now covering Jeff Cavins’ Gospel according to Matthew. Cavins’ DVDs and its accompanying workbooks have a List of Questions, including a Review of the Content, Read the Story and Take a Deeper Look, which has questions and answers that draw one to the heart of the story. This Bible Study has given me a deeper appreciation and understanding of our faith, and enhances all that we learned during our Pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2012. Also, the St. Joseph’s Edition of the New American Bible has very informative Prefaces, Introductions and Notes. After attending Mass as a young adult, I had much less interest or knowledge of our faith, but now, with many opportunities to learn more, I look forward to attending Mass and hearing the readings, gospel and sermon. And during the consecration, I prayerfully visualize Christ in the Upper Room, as He offered the Eucharistic host and cup at the Last Supper.
 
Emerite said:
Wishing that every Catholic and Christian could learn more from the Bible. Our St. Pius X Parish’s Bible Study group is now covering Jeff Cavins’ Gospel according to Matthew. Cavins’ DVDs and its accompanying workbooks have a List of Questions, including a Review of the Content, Read the Story and Take a Deeper Look, which has questions and answers that draw one to the heart of the story.
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Aaaah! I envy you a lot… :eek:

Well, maybe soon our parish will have that Gospel According to Matthew.
 
SuscipeMeDomine said:
I’m sure there aren’t enough qualified people to teach – that’s always a problem. In my area there’s a 3-year Catholic Bible Institute designed to give people the background to be able to teach about Scripture. See la-archdiocese.org/org/ore/aff/Pages/cbi.aspx

They’ll start a new cohort next year (this year they’re offering only year 2). I’m seriously thinking about signing up.
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We have a similar program in New York Archdiocese-we had 2 or 4 year programs. I was one of the few who went the whole four years. I am certified by the Archdiocese and I have been teaching two Bible study programs for ten years now.
Taking those courses was the best thing that ever happened in my spiritual life. The Word of
God is transformative. I never could speak in public until God nudged me into teaching.
He’s calling you- answer Him.
There are are many people out there who have scripture studies, unfortunately they have no background. I’ve attended a few of these just to get a measure of what is out there.I was appalled-the blind leading the blind. Many American Catholics are influenced, unknowingly, by the pervasive Evangelical presence in our culture.They have to know their RC faith but they should know the scripture just as well or better…
So my suggestion is GO FOR IT! the worst that can happen is that you’ll have more knowledge of God. There is really no down side to this.
God Bless
 
Musikero31 said:
I think the reason why he said that is because of the church where you are taking your bible study. Although the Catholic Church encourages everyone to attend bible studies and know more about Christ through the Bible, we must understand that there are some terms or teachings which are not in-line or not connected to the Catholic Teachings, and thus will eventually lead you astray from the Catholic Church.

Here are some suggestions which you can do for your Bible Study:
  • Purchase Jeff Cavin’s video series “The Great Bible Adventure 2”
  • Join the Singles for Christ or Couples for Christ (I believe they have bible study sessions which are also in-line with the teachings of the Catholic Church)
  • Ask your nearby parishes or have a priest friend to teach you.
God bless you!
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You can check the nearest Catholic Study Group in your area here
ascensionpress.com/map?utm_source=Ascension+Press&utm_campaign=da5fe39bef-UK_List_Bible_Study_Map_Announcement12_6_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e09e12a778-da5fe39bef-350177273&ct=t(UK_List_Bible_Study_Map_Announcement12_6_2013)
 
Yes, Bible study is very Protestant. Ad Orientem’s definition is a good one and his thoughts are spot on:
Ad_Orientem said:
It depends what you mean by “Bible study.” If you mean sitting around in a circle and asking each person, “What does this verse mean for you?” then yes, that is very Protestant, because Protestantism is founded on the idea that anyone can understand the Bible, without the aid of the Church.

Do I really think my own personal idea of what something means is more relevant than what the Church has solemnly taught, or even than what her eminent Fathers, Doctors, and theologians have written? Sure it takes more effort to find out; but isn’t it worth the effort?
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Reading the Bible alone is not Protestant, but too much of a love for the Bible is dangerous nowadays in Protestant cultures such as in the United States. It is a matter of drawing a sharp line in the sand between Catholicism and Protestantism, so that you do everything naturally possible to avoid being contaminated with heresy. It as if Catholics need to do everything possible to NOT do what the Romans do when in Rome. I was first made aware of this principle some years ago while reading The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America.

And this is the reasoning behind bmonk’s observation:
bmonk said:
Prior to Vatican Council II, many in the Church were suspicious of Bible Study, because it was seen as a “Protestant” thing, and as dangerous–“Look how those Protestants went astray; we should avoid that”
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And the truth is that reading or studying the Bible is not necessary for salvation (which is a most un-Protestant truth). I do not believe that St. Teresa of Avila ever read the Bible because in her autobiography she talks about the parables that she heard the priest read.

It is basic catechesis. The two means of grace are prayer and the sacraments. Unless you are reading the Bible as a part of meditative prayer (a very Catholic practice), then it is not directly helping you towards heaven.
 
St. John of the Cross writes about the importance of the priest reading the scriptures. It was a time when the laity were mostly illiterate, and so the laity “read” the priest.
The gospel is proclaimed during the Mass, not simply read. This is an important distinction that is stressed for those who are in the lector ministry. Do the words that are read from the lectionary touch the heart of the listener. Obviously, the parables touched the heart of Theresa of Avila when she listened to the priest as he proclaimed the Gospel during Mass, and we know that she could read.
St. Jerome states that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of God. So studying the Bible is not “Protestant.” Of course it would be wise to find a Bible study that is approved by the Catholic Church, and is led by somebody familiar with Catholic doctrine.
I learned much from the priest that taught the Bible study in the parish to which I belonged while living overseas in the Middle East. He provided unexpected insight and was able to disabuse individuals who had misconceptions about Church teaching. He highly recommended The Catholic Answer Bible.
Many non-Catholics have misconceptions about what the Catholic Church teaches. The Catholic Answer Bible uses scripture to refute those misconceptions as well as the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Catholics who know scripture can better explain their Faith to “Bible believing” non-Catholics. Knowing scripture makes it possible for Catholics to show non-Catholics where the prayers in the Mass originated, and exactly why the Eucharist is the Source and Summit of our Faith.
Lectio Divina, meditating on a single passage of scripture, is not reserved for monks alone, but is a practice that even the laity can put into practice.
 
It always irritated me whenever I heard that Catholics are not supposed to read the Bible but rather go to a priest for guidance. That is only a cop out used by a former generation who were too careless about the Scriptures and treated Catholicism more as a heritage and family thing rather than a religious devotion and living faith. Not everyone has the drive to learn and study the Scriptures, some are more bent on life application and service kinds of ministry, which is perfectly fine because many saints have been wired that way, but there is nothing but good that comes from deep study of the Scriptures as long as one understands that belief in Catholic doctrine is binding and Scripture needs to be understood within those boundaries.
 
In the diocese that I live in there are many wonderful Catholic bible studies available. Other parishes are going to them, and then initiating them in their parish.
 
skweiler said:
Yes, Bible study is very Protestant. Ad Orientem’s definition is a good one and his thoughts are spot on:

Reading the Bible alone is not Protestant, but too much of a love for the Bible is dangerous nowadays in Protestant cultures such as in the United States. It is a matter of drawing a sharp line in the sand between Catholicism and Protestantism, so that you do everything naturally possible to avoid being contaminated with heresy. It as if Catholics need to do everything possible to NOT do what the Romans do when in Rome. I was first made aware of this principle some years ago while reading The Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America.

And this is the reasoning behind bmonk’s observation:

And the truth is that reading or studying the Bible is not necessary for salvation (which is a most un-Protestant truth). I do not believe that St. Teresa of Avila ever read the Bible because in her autobiography she talks about the parables that she heard the priest read.

It is basic catechesis. The two means of grace are prayer and the sacraments. Unless you are reading the Bible as a part of meditative prayer (a very Catholic practice), then it is not directly helping you towards heaven.
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This is what has ruined everything, your thinking that the reading of scripture is for monks only, when you need it more than they do. Those who are placed in the world, and who receive wounds every day have the most need of medicine. So, far worse even than not reading the scriptures is the idea that they are superfluous. Such things were invented by the devil. - St. John Chrysostom

-Tim-
 
skweiler said:
And the truth is that reading or studying the Bible is not necessary for salvation (which is a most un-Protestant truth).
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Why would anyone call themselves a Christian, and not want to be extremely familiar with the Father’s Word? :eek:
I do not believe that St. Teresa of Avila ever read the Bible because in her autobiography she talks about the parables that she heard the priest read.
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That doesn’t mean she never read it herself. And St. Therese of Lisieux often read the Gospels.
It is basic catechesis. The two means of grace are prayer and the sacraments. Unless you are reading the Bible as a part of meditative prayer (a very Catholic practice), then it is not directly helping you towards heaven.
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Knowing God’s Word doesn’t help you toward Heaven? That seems a very odd statement, to me.
 
TimothyH said:
This is what has ruined everything, your thinking that the reading of scripture is for monks only, when you need it more than they do. Those who are placed in the world, and who receive wounds every day have the most need of medicine. So, far worse even than not reading the scriptures is the idea that they are superfluous. Such things were invented by the devil. - St. John Chrysostom

-Tim-
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👍
 
As a former Pentecostal I have to admit that it was easy to lure Catholics away from their faith because they really didn’t have any clue what the Bible actually taught and how it is in fact in line with Catholic teaching…that was about 25 years ago before I converted to the Catholic faith…there is a greater emphasis on Bible study groups now in the church…our priest in his homily a few weeks ago reminded us that the readings during the mass only account for 27% of the Bible and that we all need to read it and become involved in Bible study…and as another poster has noted…our Pope Francis has said we all need to carry a pocket Bible…my wife has just finished RCIA and our priest made a point of telling the class of the importance of reading the Bible…as for having statues in church…they are there for our edification…to reflect on the saints life in which they served God…and to pray for that saints intersession that we may be worthy to emulate the same virtues in our devotion to God…if Protestants think that is worshiping idols then they really don’t understand the Bible and they have a problem…the Catholic Church doesn’t
 
Emerite

There is a lot of truth in what your Catholic friend says. It’s not the way things should be but, on the whole, it’s the way they are, or have been until the very recent past. The Dominicans founded their “Ecole Biblique et Archéologique Française ” in Jerusalem in 1890, but for the first half-century of the school’s lifetime it was in almost constant conflict with the Vatican. Here’s a snippet from the Wikipedia entry:

*Relationship to the Vatican authorities

The school and its founder were, for a long time, regarded as ‘suspect’ by the Vatican authorities, as a consequence of the Modernist Crisis. Lagrange himself, like other scholars involved in the 19th century renaissance of biblical studies, was suspected of being a Modernist.[1] The school was briefly closed.

In 1909, conflict between the Dominicans and the Jesuits, common at the time, resulted in the Pope’s creation of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, as a Jesuit rival to the school.[2] The dispute between the Jesuits and the Dominicans (and their respective institutions) has gradually calmed down, particularly after the 1943 papal encyclical Divino afflante Spiritu*.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89cole_Biblique
 
I know we’re all involved in thread necromancy here, but I might as well give my two cents.

Bible study as we know it was mainly a product of 18th-19th century ‘evangelical biblicism’, which touted the Bible as the self-interpreting, infallible divine answer book for every social or personal ill - a radical, extremist version of sola scriptura. Because the Bible was seen as the solution to every problem, getting a copy of the Bible into every hands and reading it was seen as important. So yeah, evangelical biblicism did not just bring us Bible studies, it also brought us Bible societies, in fact the whole modern Bible publishing business.

So does the modern concept of Bible study have Protestant origins? I’ll say yeah. But, so what? Are we now to reject each and every stuff that Protestant folks came up with or use, just because they’re - gasp - ‘Protestant’? How is that any different from that anti-Catholic mentality of frowning anything that looks or sounds ‘pagan’ or ‘papist’? And all this time, I thought the Catholic way is not like that. We Catholics - we Christians - we baptize everything that can be used for good, right? (And Bible studies can lead to good - conducted properly of course.) We have done that since for as long as anyone could remember, right? What happened to all that, I wonder?

Pardon the snarkiness, but all this just looks like a double standard and (as someone else mentioned) a ‘throwing the baby with the bathwater’-type of response to me. Seriously, this whole ‘Protestant-phobia’ among some Catholics is no better than the ‘Rome-phobia’ seen in some Protestants. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I may not be a very devout or even practicing type of person, but c’mon folks, I know we all need to be better than this.
 
TimothyH said:
Correct me if I am wrong but the threshold for “old” is one year.
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Well, Tim, I suppose that would depend, at least in part, on how old you are. In my post #74 on this thread I indirectly referred to the 1943 papal encyclical *Divino afflante spiritu *as an event that happened in “the very recent past”.

Regards
Bart
 
TimothyH said:
This is what has ruined everything, your thinking that the reading of scripture is for monks only, when you need it more than they do. Those who are placed in the world, and who receive wounds every day have the most need of medicine. So, far worse even than not reading the scriptures is the idea that they are superfluous. Such things were invented by the devil. - St. John Chrysostom
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This was before Protestantism (which was invented by the Devil) and I don’t believe that the Bible should only be read by monks.

This thread is about Bible study not reading the Bible.
 
skweiler said:
This was before Protestantism (which was invented by the Devil) and I don’t believe that the Bible should only be read by monks.

This thread is about Bible study not reading the Bible.
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Studying the Bible includes understanding the author’s purpose. This is clearly Catholic teaching and a reason why Bible study is Catholic.
Again, this is what made the Bible study that I attended while overseas so fantastic. The priest who led the study was well versed not only in doctrine, but in history.
Since the homily is based on the readings of the Mass, and the readings come directly from scripture, we should actually be getting a bit of Bible study during Mass. For instance, why did Jesus take Peter, James, and John with him when he was transfigured? Moses represents the Law and Elijah the prophets. Jesus needed witnesses to the Transfiguration. Jewish Law requires a minimum of 2 witnesses. Our Lord had three.

When Catholics not only read the Bible but understand it in light of Catholic teaching, they are better able to explain what the Church teaches when confronted by those with misconceptions.
 
skweiler said:
This was before Protestantism (which was invented by the Devil) and I don’t believe that the Bible should only be read by monks.

This thread is about Bible study not reading the Bible.
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You mentioned reading the Bible three times in your post. :confused:

The importance of studying, or just reading scripture for that matter, did not change because of Protestantism. We need students of scripture now more than ever.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. (James 1:22)

You can’t do it if you don’t understand it. Listening to three minutes of Scripture once a week at Mass isn’t enough for anyone.

-Tim-
 
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