Program of Priestly Formation (Ascension)

325 PPF

Program of Priestly Formation

of the Holy Spirit, . . . have God as their author, and have been handed on as such to the Church herself.” On the other hand, “to compose the sacred books, God chose certain men who . . . made full use of their own powers and faculties so that, though he acted in them and by them, it was as true authors that they consigned to writing whatever he wanted written, and no more.” 386 “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.” 387 This means “the reader must take into account the conditions of their [the human authors’] time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking and narrating then current.” 388 But if Sacred Scripture is to be taught as Sacred Scripture and not simply as an artifact of human culture, “there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter: ‘Sacred Scripture must be read and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was written.’” 389 “In their work of interpretation Catholic exegetes must never forget that what they are interpreting is the word of God . Their common task is not finished when they have simply determined sources, defined forms or explained literary procedures. They arrive at the true goal of their work only when they have explained the meaning of the biblical text as God’s word for today.” 390 This requires (1) attention to “the content and unity of the whole Scripture”; (2) reading of Sacred Scripture within “the living Tradition of the whole Church”; and (3) attention to the “analogy of faith.” 391 Otherwise, the study of Sacred Scripture cannot serve as the “soul of sacred theology,” 392 and a dichotomy will arise between the study

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386 Dei Verbum , no. 11. 387 Catechism of the Catholic Church , no. 109. See Dei Verbum , no. 12. 388 Catechism of the Catholic Church , no. 110.

389 Catechism of the Catholic Church , no. 111, emphasis added; see Dei Verbum , no. 12. 390 Pontifical Biblical Commission, The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church ( 1993), III.C.1. 391 Catechism of the Catholic Church , nos. 112-114. See Dei Verbum , no. 12. 392 Dei Verbum , no. 24.

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