Reading of the Bible should be done without subjectivism or arbitrariness (CNA)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Catholic_Press
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
I don’t think there’s anything here that is an improvement over the guidelines for Bible interpretation issued by the Pontifical Biblical Institute in 1993, Verbum Dei from Vatican II, or the teaching in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

People, even bishops, are railing and ranting over fundamentalism, without really explaining what they mean by that broad term.

Originally, fundamentalism was characterized by sola scriptura, attributing authority only to the written word of Scripture.

Jewish fundamentalism has long been rejected. By that I’m referring to the literalism of the Sadducees in Jesus’ time. The rabbis who wrote the Talmud ( Mishnah [law] and Gerera [commentary]) had to take a practical and rather liberal interpretation of the Torah, especially after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans and the suppression of the Jewish state.

The fundamentalism of the Sadduccees was inherently illogical and the movement disappeared roughly in the first century AD.

A readily available and readable introduction to this subject is, Everybody’s Talmud by Abraham Cohen (especially the introduction to the book). What the Talmud lacks that has developed at least in Catholicm is magisterium. Cohen, at best, over and over, simply tells us this rabbit said this, that rabbi said that, the other rabbi said something else. Judaism, explained as such, displays a lack of closure that is derived by magisterium.
 
I find it interesting that the article included both subjectivism and fundamentalism in the same breath. Ideally, they are almost opposites. Subjectivism is a “What does the Bible say to me” mentatlity without regard to what the Bible says in and of itself. Fundamentalism is just the opposite in that the historical-critical method is used exclusive to all outside influence, including what others have understood in the past. The one thing they have in common is that both involve one person and the Bible.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top