Teaching Scripture
The Catholic approach to interpreting scripture is summed up in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to the person in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words (n.109)
The Bible is firmly grounded in history; in the history of the Jewish people, the historical events surrounding Jesus of Nazareth and the history of the early Christian communities. However, at no time do Biblical authors claim to present objective history. Each book in the Old and New Testaments has been written from the bias of faith. The aim was never to write history but rather “to proclaim the wonders that God has worked in the midst of people and to interpret those events so that others might have faith” (Stead, 1996). Ordinary, everyday language is inadequate for such a task, so theBiblical authors made extensive use of symbol, metaphor and imagery. Therefore, for the teacher and student of scripture the question is not, ‘Did this (event) really happen?’ but rather, ‘What does this text mean?’
The Pontifical Biblical Commission document, The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1993), affirmed the need to approach scripture critically using methods like the historical-critical method and literary analysis. For the teacher, engaging students in a critical study of scriptural texts involves research into historical issues raised in the text; identification of the text type and textual features; exploration of the setting, characters, structure, plot and attention to the context and function of the text, within the specific book in which it is located, as well as the Bible as a whole.
Catholics do not read scripture from a fundamentalist understanding. Such an approach begins with the view that the Bible, being the inspired Word of God, is error free, historically accurate and therefore should be read and interpreted literally in all its details. This is not the approach taken in the Catholic Church or in the religion classroom. Rather, the Catholic Church’s understanding of scripture accepts the Bible as the inspired Word of God and as the work of human authors who were conditioned by their time, place, culture and worldview.
Taken from "Teaching Scripture in the Classroom" Brisbane Catholic Education
The Pontifical Biblical Commission document, The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1993), affirmed the need to approach scripture critically using methods like the historical-critical method and literary analysis. For the teacher, engaging students in a critical study of scriptural texts involves research into historical issues raised in the text; identification of the text type and textual features; exploration of the setting, characters, structure, plot and attention to the context and function of the text, within the specific book in which it is located, as well as the Bible as a whole.
Catholics do not read scripture from a fundamentalist understanding. Such an approach begins with the view that the Bible, being the inspired Word of God, is error free, historically accurate and therefore should be read and interpreted literally in all its details. This is not the approach taken in the Catholic Church or in the religion classroom. Rather, the Catholic Church’s understanding of scripture accepts the Bible as the inspired Word of God and as the work of human authors who were conditioned by their time, place, culture and worldview.
Taken from "Teaching Scripture in the Classroom" Brisbane Catholic Education