djc@questor.wimsey.bc.ca (Dusan J. Cyprich) (07/02/90)
Note: This article contains several expressions in
italics. For purposes of electronic display, these
expressions are enclosed in <>.
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This statement is from: National Conference of Catholic
Bishops Ad Hoc Committee on Biblical Fundamentalism,
chaired by Archbishop John Whealon of Hartford, Conn.
Statement released Sept. 30 and dated March 26, 1987.
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PASTORAL STATEMENT FOR CATHOLICS
ON BIBLICAL FUNDAMENTALISM
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This is a statement of concern to our Catholic brothers and
sisters who may be attracted to biblical fundamentalism without
realizing its serious weaknesses. We Catholic bishops, speaking
as a special committee of the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops, desire to remind our faithful of the fullness of
Christianity that God has provided in the Catholic Church.
Fundamentalism indicates a person's general approach to life
which is typified by unyielding adherence to rigid doctrinal and
ideological positions -- an approach that affects the
individual's social and political attitudes as well as religious
ones. Fundamentalism in this sense is found in non-Christian
religions and can be doctrinal as well as biblical. But in this
statement we are speaking only of biblical fundamentalism,
presently attractive to some Christians, including some
Catholics.
Biblical fundamentalists are those who present the Bible,
God's inspired word, as the only necessary source for teaching
about Christ and Christian living. This insistence on the
teaching Bible is usually accompanied by a spirit that is warm,
friendly, and pious. Such a spirit attracts many (especially
idealistic young) converts. With ecumenical respect for these
communities, we acknowledge their proper emphasis on religion as
influencing family life and workplace. The immediate attractions
are the ardor of the Christian community and the promises of
certitude and of a personal conversion experience to the person
of Jesus Christ without the need of church. As Catholic pastors,
however, we note its presentation of the Bible as a single rule
for living. According to fundamentalism, the Bible alone is
sufficient. There is no place for the universal teaching church
-- including its wisdom, its teachings, creeds, and other
doctrinal formulations, its liturgical and devotional traditions.
There is simply no claim to a visible, audible, living, teaching
authority binding the individual or congregations.
A further characteristic of biblical fundamentalism is that
it tends to interpret the Bible as being always without error or
as literally true in a way quite different from the Catholic
Church's teaching on the inerrancy of the Bible. For some
biblical fundamentalists, inerrancy extends even to scientific
and historical matters. The Bible is presented without regard
for its historical context and development.
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In 1943 Pope Pius XII encouraged the church to promote
biblical study and renewal, making use of textual criticism. The
Catholic Church continued to study the Bible as a valuable guide
for Christian living. In 1965 the Second Vatican Council, in its
Constitution on Divine Revelation, gave specific teaching on the
Bible. Catholics are taught to see the Bible as God's book --
and also as a collection of books written under divine
inspiration by many human beings. The Bible is true -- and to
discover its inspired truth we should study the patterns of
thinking and writing used in ancient biblical times. With
Vatican II, we believe that "the books of Scripture must be
acknowledged as teaching firmly, faithfully and without error
that truth which God wanted put into the sacred writings for the
sake of our salvation" (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine
Revelation, 11). We do not look upon the Bible as an authority
for science or history. We see truth in the Bible as not to be
reduced solely to literal truth, but also to include salvation
truths expressed in varied literary forms.
We observed in biblical fundamentalism an effort to try to
find in the Bible all the direct answers for living -- though the
Bible itself nowhere claims such authority. The appeal of such
an approach is understandable. Our world is one of war,
violence, dishonesty, personal and sexual irresponsibility. It
is a world in which people are frightened by the power of the
nuclear bomb and the insanity of the arms race, where the only
news seems to be bad news. People of all ages yearn for answers.
They look for sure, definite rules for living. And they are
given answers -- simplistic answers to complex issues -- in a
confident and enthusiastic way in fundamentalist Bible groups.
The appeal is evident for the Catholic young adult or teen-
ager -- one whose family background may be troubled; who is
struggling with life, morality, and religion; whose Catholic
education may have been seriously inadequate in the fundamentals
of doctrine, the Bible, prayer life, and sacramental living;
whose catechetical formation may have been inadequate in
presenting the full Catholic traditions and teaching authority.
For such a person, the appeal of finding the <ANSWER> in a
devout, studious, prayerful, warm, Bible-quoting class is easy to
understand. But the ultimate problem with such fundamentalism is
that it can give only a limited number of answers and cannot
present those answers, on balance, because it does not have
Christ's teaching church nor even an understanding of how the
Bible originally came to be written, and collected in the sacred
canon, or official list of inspired books.
Our Catholic belief is that we know God's revelation in the
total Gospel. The Gospel comes to us through the Spirit-guided
tradition of the Church and the inspired books: "This sacred
tradition, therefore, and Sacred Scripture of both the Old and
New Testament are like a mirror in which the pilgrim church on
earth looks at God" (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation,
7).
A key question for any Christian is, Does the community of
faith which is the Lord's church have a living tradition which
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presents God's word across the centuries until the Lord comes
again? The Catholic answer to this question is an unqualified
yes. That answer was expressed most recently in the Constitution
on Divine Revelation of the Second Vatican Council. We look to
both the church's official teaching and Scripture for guidance in
addressing life's problems. It is the official teaching or
magisterium that in a special way guides us in matters of belief
and morality that have developed after the last word of Scripture
was written. The church of Christ teaches in the name of Christ
and teaches us concerning the Bible itself.
The basic characteristic of biblical fundamentalism is that
it eliminates from Christianity the church as the Lord Jesus
founded it. That church is a community of faith, worldwide, with
pastoral and teaching authority. This non-church characteristic
of biblical fundamentalism, which sees the church as only
spiritual, may not at first be clear to some Catholics. From
some fundamentalists they will hear nothing offensive to their
beliefs, and much of what they hear seems compatible with
Catholic Christianity. The difference is often not in what is
said -- but in what is not said. There is no mention of the
historic, authoritative church in continuity with Peter and the
other apostles. There is no vision of the church as our mother -
- a mother who is not just spiritual, but who is visibly ours to
teach and guide us in the way of Christ.
Unfortunately, a minority of fundamentalist churches and
sects not only put down the Catholic Church as a "man-made
organization" with "man-made rules," but indulge in crude anti-
Catholic bigotry with which Catholics have long been familiar.
We believe that no Catholic properly catechized in the faith
can long live the Christian life without those elements that are
had only in the fullness of Christianity: the eucharist and the
other six sacraments, the celebration of the word in the
liturgical cycle, the veneration of the Blessed Mother and the
saints, teaching authority and history linked to Christ, and the
demanding social doctrine of the church based on the sacredness
of all human life.
It is important for every Catholic to realize that the church
produced the New Testament, not vice versa. The Bible did not
come down from heaven, whole and intact, given by the Holy
Spirit. Just as the experience and faith of Israel developed its
sacred books, so was the early Christian Church the matrix of the
New Testament. The Catholic Church has authoritatively told us
which books are inspired by the Holy Spirit and therefore
canonical. The Bible, then, is the church's book. The New
Testament did not come before the church, but from the church.
Peter and the other apostles were given special authority to
teach and govern before the New Testament was written. The first
generation of Christians had no New Testament at all -- but they
were the church then, must as we are the church today.
A study of the New Testament, in fact, shows that
discipleship is to be a community experience with liturgy and
headship and demonstrates the importance of belonging to the
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church started by Jesus Christ. Christ chose Peter and the other
apostles as foundations of his Church, made Simon Peter its rock
foundation and gave a teaching authority to Peter and the other
apostles. This is most clear in the Gospel of Matthew, the only
Gospel to use the word <church>. The history of 20 Christian
centuries confirms our belief that Peter and the other apostles
have been succeeded by the bishop of Rome and the other bishops,
and that the flock of Christ still has, under Christ, a universal
shepherd.
For historical reasons the Catholic Church in the past did
not encourage Bible studies as much as she could have. True,
printing (the Latin Bible was the first work printed) was not
invented until the mid-15th century, and few people were literate
during the first 16 centuries of Christianity. But in the
scriptural renewal the church strongly encourages her sons and
daughters to read, study and live the Bible. The proclamation of
the Scriptures in the liturgical assembly is to be prepared for
by private Bible study and prayer. At the present time, two
decades after Vatican II, we Catholics have all the tools needed
to become Christians who know, love and live the Holy Bible. We
have a well-ordered Lectionary that opens for us the treasures of
all the books of the Bible in a three-year cycle for Sunday and
holy day Masses, and a more complete two-year cycle for weekday
Masses. Through the Lectionary the Catholic becomes familiar
with the Bible according to the rhythm of the liturgical seasons
and the church's experience and use of the Bible at Mass. We
have excellent translations (with notes) in the New American
Bible and the Jerusalem Bible. We have other accurate
translations with an imprimatur. We have an abundance of
commentaries, charts, tapes, and Bible societies.
We Catholics have excellent Bible resources and scholars of
international repute. Our challenge now is to get this knowledge
into the minds, hearts, and lives of all our Catholic people. We
need a pastoral plan for the word of God that will place the
Sacred Scriptures at the heart of the parish and individual life.
Pastoral creativity can develop approaches such as weekly Bible
study groups and yearly Bible schools in every parish. We need
to have the introduction to each Bible reading prepared and
presented by the lector in a way that shows familiarity with and
love for the sacred text (cf. Foreword to the Lectionary,
Introduction, #15,155,313,320). In areas where there is a
special problem with fundamentalism, the pastor may consider a
Mass to which people bring their own Bibles and in which
qualified lectors present a carefully prepared introduction and
read the text -- without, however, making the Liturgy of the Word
a Bible study class. We need a familiar quoting of the Bible by
every catechist, lector, and minister. We have not done enough
in this area. The neglect of parents in catechetics and the
weakness of our adult education efforts are now producing a grim
harvest. We need to educate -- to re-educate -- our people
knowingly in the Bible so as to counteract the simplicities of
biblical fundamentalism.
In addition to that, we Catholics need to redouble our
efforts to make our parish Masses an expression of worship in
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which all -- parishioners, visitors, and strangers -- feel the
warmth and the welcome and know that here the Bible is clearly
reverenced and preached. The current trend toward smaller faith-
sharing and Bible-studying groups within a parish family is
strongly to be encouraged.
We call for further research on this entire question. We
note that the U.S. Center for the Catholic Biblical Apostolate
(1312 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W./Washington DC/20005) will
maintain an updated listing of available resources for Catholic
Bible study. Any individual Catholic parish representative may
write to learn the many available helps for developing Bible
study and Bible teaching in accord with our long and rich
Catholic tradition.