The Pope and The Bible
I just finished a great article over at The Catholic Free Press about the upcoming Synod of Bishops in October. While, sure, as a protestant I have issue with a handful of Catholic doctrines, however, whenever I hear something about Pope Benedict XVI I always get a little excited because of his passion for the scriptures. My excitement was peaked this morning as I read that the upcoming Synod will focus on the Bible. I recommend you check out the whole article, but here are some highlights (Bold is mine).
The pope’s concern touches several levels. For one thing, despite an upsurge in biblical interest after the Second Vatican Council, only a minority of Catholics read the Bible regularly. The pope views the lack of scriptural formation as part of a wider crisis of catechetics in the church.
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So in convoking some 250 bishops for the Oct. 5-26 synod, the pope did not intend to host a forum for scriptural analysis. His primary interest is pastoral, and a main challenge is to lead more Catholics to the Bible.
As he told synod planners earlier this year, reading, interpreting and living the words of Scripture are fundamental to the faith life of Christians. Without that, the church’s great works in the modern age — including evangelization and ecumenism — are bound to stall, he said.
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And while specialists are needed, he said, “the real and essential meaning of the Bible is something the simple believer can grasp just as well.”
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One of Pope Benedict’s primary convictions is that the New Testament offers the key to understanding the Old Testament and that, as a whole, the Bible necessarily leads to Christ.
But he believes this traditional Christological approach has been threatened by some modern schools of interpretation that would limit the meaning of any biblical book to the author’s historical context.
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Instead, he said, his method takes the conviction of faith — faith that Jesus truly was God — as a starting point for reading Scripture. This approach allows for a proper theological interpretation of the Bible, yet does not sacrifice the church’s “serious engagement with history,” he said.
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What’s important, he once said, is to “read the Bible regularly, to let it keep us company and guide us.”
Man, there is some seriously good stuff in there. I truly hope that the our Catholic brothers and sisters will heed the Pope’s words and pick up their Bibles and begin to read!
See the NLTSB for Yourself
If you are interested in checking out the New Living Translation Study Bible, they are offereing a free 30 preview online.
NLTSB and the ESVSB
I came across two posts this morning that seek to compare the New Living Translation Study Bible with the English Standard Version Study Bible. It should be noted, however, that the people reviewing the NLTSB have a copy in hand (typically) that the publisher has sent them. Since the ESVSB has not been released and it would seem that they have not sent out many review copies, most reviews of the ESVSB thus far are by those who have pulled information off the ESV Blog. That said:
If you’r looking for reviews without comparisons, you can find some here:
- NLTSB reviews
- ESVSB Reviews (skip down past the “endorsements” and you’ll see blog reactions)
ESV Study Bible Giveaway Winner
Congratulations to Chad Brooks of Outside is Better who is the winner of a new ESV Study Bible from best-bible.org. Chad linked to the Best Bible site during our ESV Giveaway contest and his name was selected at random this morning.
Now, while the contest is officially over, please continue to leave reviews of products on the site so that you can help visitors understand the pros and cons of the Bible translations and resources we have listed.
Again, congratulations to Chad and thanks to everyone who praticipated.
