Request for comments on Bible Study material

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I’m trying to develop materials for a Bible Study I facilitate for young adults who have varying familiarity with the Bible. I’ve come up with something I’m calling Mind-Soul-Strength-Heart (based on Luke 10:27). Here’s the general idea:

The Four Ways to Love God (Luke 10:27)

  1. *]Heart
    *]Soul
    *]Strength
    *]Mind

    The Four Senses of Scripture (CCC 115-119)

    1. *]Literal (the meaning conveyed by the words)
      *]Allegorical (their relation to Christ and the Paschal Mystery)
      *]Moral (how they instruct us in right living)
      *]Anagogical (their relation to eternal realities)

      The Four Pillars of the Catechism

      1. *]The Creed
        *]The Sacraments and Liturgy (The Paschal Mystery)
        *]The Moral Life
        *]Christian Prayer

        My Bible study model is an integration of these three sets of four:

        1. *]Mind refers to information, intellectual knowledge of the faith: The Creed, the literal sense
          *]Soul refers to formation, spiritual understanding of the faith: The Paschal Mystery, the allegorical sense
          *]Strength refers to right action, moral living: The Life of Faith, the moral sense
          *]Heart refers to intimate union with God: Christian Prayer, the anagogical sense

          You can download a sample MSSH study session (MS Word, 50 K, 4pp) that I developed over the past few days. It’s designed to last between 60 and 90 minutes. It covers the First Reading and the Gospel for next Sunday; the Psalm is incorporated (although it is not “studied”), and the Second Reading is mentioned briefly. (I think trying to cover all four passages of Scripture — or three, if you leave out the Psalm — is a bit much for a 60 or 90 minute study, especially when the Second Reading is often not thematically related to the First Reading or the Gospel.)

          I’d love to hear your comments and suggestions.
 
Hi Japhy,

You plan is certainly well thought out as well as your sample lesson. But you should find a way to make a strong and clear distinction between the REVEALED senses and the ones that are not, emphasizing the former. An allegorical or prophetical sense is mere human piety unless it is revealed in the bible itself or so interpreted by the Church. For example the story of Noah’s ark as figurative of baptism would be mere pious meditation, even from St Augustine, if it were not in Peter 1. Another example is the serpent that Moses put up in the desert and that Jesus interpreted as figurative of Himself. By giving equal value to all the “senses”, we risk depreciating the Bible as the word of God.

You are no doubt familiar with Pius XII’s Divino Afflante Spiritu, in which he writes at length on this subject :
  1. For what was said and done in the Old Testament was ordained and disposed by God with such consummate wisdom, that things past prefigured in a spiritual way those that were to come under the new dispensation of grace. Wherefore the exegete, just as he must search out and expound the literal meaning of the words, intended and expressed by the sacred writer, so also must he do likewise for the spiritual sense, provided it is clearly intended by God. For God alone could have known this spiritual meaning and have revealed it to us. Now Our Divine Savior Himself points out to us and teaches us this same sense in the Holy Gospel; the Apostles also, following the example of the Master, profess it in their spoken and written words; the unchanging tradition of the Church approves it; and finally the most ancient usage of the liturgy proclaims it, wherever may be rightly applied the well-known principle: “The rule of prayer is the rule of faith.”
  2. Let Catholic exegetes then disclose and expound this spiritual significance, intended and ordained by God, with that care which the dignity of the divine word demands; but let them scrupulously refrain from proposing as the genuine meaning of Sacred Scripture other figurative senses. It may indeed be useful, especially in preaching, to illustrate, and present the matters of faith and morals by a broader use of the Sacred Text in the figurative sense, provided this be done with moderation and restraint; it should, however, never be forgotten that this use of the Sacred Scripture is, as it were, extrinsic to it and accidental, and that, especially in these days, it is not free from danger, since the faithful, in particular those who are well-informed in the sciences sacred and profane, wish to know what God has told us in the Sacred Letters rather than what an ingenious orator or writer may suggest (…) the Sacred Pages, written under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, are of themselves rich in original meaning; endowed with a divine power, they have their own value; adorned with heavenly beauty, they radiate of themselves light and splendor, provided they are so fully and accurately explained by the interpreter, that all the treasures of wisdom and prudence, therein contained are brought to light.
Click to expand...
vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_30091943_divino-afflante-spiritu_en.html

Keep up the good work.

Verbum
 
From the original post, it seems that you are on the right track. But, if I’m not mistaken, Scott Hahn and his coworkers are doing a lot of this at www.salvationhistory.com and in the Ignatius Study Bible Guides that they are developing.

I don’t have it at hand, but I recall from Eerdman’s History of Christianity that St. Bonaventure, a respected scripture scholare, proposed eight senses of scripture. The currently proposed four are probably enough for the sake of discussion, though.

We surely need talented people to show the living scriptures to youth, in particular.

From my reading of Jewish commentaries, reflecting on the Shema in Deut 6:4ff, “strength” means even with all our wealth-we don’t hold anything back from God. “Soul” means to love God even unto death. And, certainly “heart” means to love God alone, even above spouse and family, and certainly not to entertain other “gods.”

Jesus expanded the Shema (“Hear”) to include “mind.” That deserves a lot of reflection but it must include loving God totally “without reservation or purpose of evasion” as is said in other contexts.

Deut 6 teaches to put these things “on” the hearts of children, so that in time these teachings would be “in” their hearts, part of them, without reservation.
 
Don’t minimize the Psalm. Sometimes, it is the most important reading.

Don’t limit youself to the readings. Sometimes, the pericope does not include the most interesting material because of “political correctness.”

Beware of lists. They tend to equalize rather than prioritize. The result is that they tend to result in the most important being forgotten.
 
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