Essential Church History: And the Doctrinal Significance of the Past

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In modern times this kind of mental state can be achieved under hypnosis and is known as " past life regression ". It is from these types of experiences that some of the ancients derived a belief in the pre-existence of souls and reincarnation. At death, the soul sheds the physical body, after which one becomes aware of the spiritual society one's soul was associated with.

There is no such thing as purgatory , a state after death where one suffers temporal punishments before entry into heaven. Punishment only takes place in hell. However immediately after the death of the body, one enters the world of spirits, an intermediate state where one awaits judgment to enter heaven or hell. Otherwise, one gradually withdraws from exterior appearances and fallacies into one's interior intentions and affections in the world of spirits.

This process is completed when one acts in complete freedom without any exterior restraint, and everything of a person's character is then made open and manifest. There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid that shall not be known: And in another place: I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment Matt. When all external restraints are removed in the world of spirits, nothing remains to stop evil spirits except punishment.

As evil spirits act according to their nature, they are then drawn downward towards similar evil societies in hell. But still no one in the other world suffers punishment on account of the evils which he had done in this world, but on account of the evils which he then does. Yet it amounts to the same, and is the same thing, whether it be said that men suffer punishment on account of their evils in the world, or that they suffer punishment on account of the evils which they do in the other life, inasmuch as every one after death returns into his own life, and thus into similar evils, his nature remaining the same as it had been in the life of the body.

That they are punished, is because the fear of punishment is the only means of subduing evils in this state. Exhortation is no longer of any avail, neither instruction, nor the fear of the law and loss of reputation, since every one now acts from his nature, which cannot be restrained nor broken except by punishments. The Lord is the God of heaven, and heaven is made of the Divine which proceeds from Him. It is for this reason the ancients aligned their temples to the east to the rising sun. Altogether the form of heaven is that of a human form.

Each angel has a spiritual body also in human form, and is a heaven in its least microcosmic form. All angels and demons in heaven and hell originated from the human race, and this is why angels have human form. There is no individual spirit known as the devil or satan: Free will to choose between good and evil originates from the spiritual equilibrium that exists between heaven and hell. Hell continually influences man to do evil, and heaven continually influences man to do good. It is from this spiritual equilibrium that man has freedom to think rationally, and it is from this freedom that one can be spiritually reformed by acknowledging evil in one's self, then ceasing to do evil, and finally to hold that evil in aversion.

Inasmuch as one does good one becomes conjoined with angels, and inasmuch as one does evil one becomes conjoined with evil spirits. When the truth is accepted and one sees an internal evil selfish desire, combat or temptation results. One must resist against evil temptation from one's own effort, which appears as a remorse of conscience, but in reality this is a combat that takes place between the Lord and the devil or hell.

Salvation or condemnation is a result of one's moral choices in life, based on one's intentions. Good is only considered good once evils are removed, not before. Good must be done for the sake of the Lord out of love, and not for profit or self-honor. And, one must acknowledge that all good comes from the Lord only, and only the Lord can conquer temptation. This is a continuous process during one's lifetime. If this is the case, the question then arises, why was it necessary for Jesus Christ to come to save the human race?

The answer to that is before the time of Jesus, the spiritual equilibrium between heaven and hell had become imbalanced, and hell began to gain control and influence over humanity: By becoming incarnate in human form, Jehovah could fight directly against all of hell, as Jesus suffered enormous temptations from the body He inherited from His human mother.

This process continued until Jesus conquered all temptations, and thus all of hell, even to the point where His physical body was made one with the Divine. From His body the Divine proceeded forth as the Holy Spirit, by which He can directly operate through each person's will for reformation, so that each person can become conjoined directly with the Lord. Remission of sins is nothing more than their removal after repentance. Passages from scripture that refer to the body and blood of Jesus refer to the Divine Good and Divine Truth which proceeds from his Divine Human; and these are imbibed or imputed by a life of charity and faith.

The Word of God is contained in the Bible, which has a symbolic spiritual meaning hidden in its literal sense. Swedenborg's visions primarily explain how and why the Bible is divinely inspired, and it is methodically delineated word by word in his massive multi-volume work, the Arcana Coelestia meaning Heavenly Secrets. The symbolic language, where each passage follows the other in a coherent logical series, is what Swedenborg called "correspondences.

It is this hidden inner meaning that separates the Bible from other books, and each statement Swedenborg makes is supported through numerous quotations of Biblical passages.

The books that have this inner spiritual meaning is what forms the true Biblical canon , as follows:. According to Swedenborg, the original text of the Old Testament is preserved in the Hebrew Masoretic edition, where letters were counted by the Masorites to ensure that the scripture remained accurate and free from corruption. The same divisions were specified by Jesus Christ in the gospel of Luke Luke Swedenborg's groupings differ from Judaism's, as he assigned Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings to the Law of Moses, while according to the Jewish biblical canon the Law of Moses the Torah refers to the first five books, and these four books belong to the Prophets Nevi'im.

However, in other passages Swedenborg states that Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets respectively, [79] and as Elijah appears in the book of Kings that would indicate that this book should belong among the Prophets. The other books of the Old Testament, which are not believed to be divinely inspired, include those that are generally grouped by the Jews under the "Writings" Ketuvim. In the Greek Septuagint these works were mixed in with the rest of scripture, which largely determined the Biblical book order for all of Christianity. Moreover, the Greek Septuagint introduced other writings among the Hebrew scripture, which Martin Luther removed and placed among the Apocrypha.

Among the Writings the Jews included Lamentations, Daniel, and sometimes the Psalms, which the New Church states are divinely inspired and are considered as primary sacred scripture. These books do indeed contain symbolic representations similar to divinely inspired scripture, but not in a complete series. The New Church regards the words of Jesus as divinely inspired, and thus the canon of sacred scripture, and among the books of the New Testament includes only the four Gospels Matthew , Mark , Luke , John and the Book of Revelation.

Although this leaves out the Book of Acts and the letters of the apostles , the New Church holds them in esteem similar to that of the Jews for the Writings of the Old Testament. Swedenborg stated that these books were included as an act of divine providence , as books explaining Christian doctrine were needed for the general public. Swedenborg stated that there were a set of sacred texts among an "Ancient Church" in the Middle East which preceded Judaism, but the texts became lost over time.

A Hebrew midrash called Jasher see Sefer haYashar was published in Venice in and an English translation was published in The Hebrew text was examined by the 19th-century biblical scholar George Bush a relative of the Bush political family , who later became a Swedenborgian minister. Although the New Church has no official position on this Hebrew text, Swedenborg stated that the first portions of Genesis was taken from the Ancient Word, [86] and these portions do happen to be found in the book of Jasher. In the doctrines of the New Church, there is a complete review and assessment of the doctrines of the former churches.

Before the New Church can be received, the doctrines of the older churches must be exposed in the open and rejected. In the New Church, authority is based on divine revelation, not on creeds or church councils. However, one's interpretation of scripture is also determined by doctrine, and one should seek enlightenment from the Lord when reading the Word.

The Nicene Creed , along with the Athanasian Creed , introduced an idea of a trinity of persons, and perverted the entire Christian Church. As with the Nicene Creed , the Athanasian Creed is incorrect when it defines a trinity of persons. Despite this, in the New Church the Athanasian Creed can be corrected as long as a Trinity of one person in the Lord is understood when the creed speaks of a trinity of persons. He is one, because the Divine took to itself the Human; yea, He is altogether one, for He is one Person: The Council of Chalcedon declared that Jesus has two natures, the Divine and the human, and is thus contrary to the doctrine of the New Church.

As for this particular council, Swedenborg stated that it was revealed to him in a vision from heaven that "those who had the greatest influence in the council, and who were superior to the rest in rank and authority, came together in a dark room and there concluded that both a Divine and a human nature should be attributed to the Lord; principally for the reason, that otherwise the papal sway could not be maintained.

For if they had acknowledged the Lord to be one with the Father, as He Himself says, no one could have been recognized as His vicar on earth; and schisms were arising at that time, by which the papal power might have fallen and been dissipated, if they had not made this distinction. Then to give their decision strength, they sought out confirmations from the Word, and persuaded the rest. In Socinianism the Divinity of Jesus is denied, and Jesus is considered to be no different than any other man.

Arianism is similar, which states that Jesus was a created being. As the acknowledgement of Jesus as the God-Man or Divine Human is a central tenet of the New Church, this type of theology is regarded as the worst and most abominable of all heresies. The Divine Human is the means by which all of humanity is saved, and as all those who are in heaven are in His presence, those in the Christian church who have denied His Divinity have no other place to go than hell.

This condemnation, however, does not apply to those who have been born and lived outside the Christian church. The reason why this is so is that this thought can be derived from a doctrine of three persons, from dividing Christ into two natures, and from calling Jesus as the mere son of Mary. The religion of Islam was established according to Divine Providence, in order to eliminate the idolatrous worship of many nations. It is regarded as a partial or introductory revelation, as Islam worships one God, teaches one to live well and to shun evil, teaches that Jesus was a great prophet and the son of the virgin Mary but not the son of God, as in Christianity, and the Quran contains teachings from portions of scripture.

Islam is a religion adapted to societies where polygamy is permitted. As polygamy is an opposite love from monogamous marriage, and a marriage between a husband and wife corresponds to the marriage of the Lord and the church, internal spiritual matters were not revealed or allowed to be known in Islam to prevent what is holy from being profaned.

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According to Swedenborgian teaching, the Roman Catholic Church has perverted scripture for the purpose of obtaining primacy and dominion in spiritual matters. Specifically, the intent of the decision at the Council of Chalcedon to declare that Jesus has a Divine and human nature was so that the Papacy could claim to be the Vicar of Christ, and appropriate spiritual powers to the priesthood which belongs to Divinity alone.

Thus authority is often claimed by the Papacy and the priesthood over that of scripture. Papal primacy is claimed by the Catholic Church from a false interpretation of Matt. In the New Church, this passage is understood spiritually: Those within the Catholic church who do not read scripture are in external worship only, but this again is from Divine Providence to prevent holy scripture from being profaned. Although the Protestant churches have broken away from the Catholic Church and rejected many of its traditions, surprisingly on further analysis the basic theology has remained the same.

For the most part, Catholics and Protestants agree on the belief of a trinity of three persons, original sin, the imputation of the merit of Christ, and justification by faith. The main difference is that the Protestants believe that faith alone saves, without works of charity. Despite this, Protestants do adjoin good works to charity, but in man as a passive subject, whereas in the Catholic Church good works can be done by man as an active subject. In the New Church good works must also be done according to faith in man also as an active subject, with the acknowledgment that all good originates from God and not from self.

The Protestant doctrine of separating faith from good works is derived from a single verse from the apostle Paul, where he states that man is justified by faith without "works of the law" Rom. However this is a false interpretation, for by "works of the law" Paul had meant the external rituals of the Mosaic law, not the Decalogue or the ten commandments, nor works of charity. When it is recognized that the doctrine of faith alone is false, and true faith is joined to how one lives one's life, the rest of the theology falls apart.

Thus there is no instantaneous salvation by paying lip service to a belief in Christ, at which time " imputed righteousness " is transferred to the believer. The faith of the former church teaches the imputation of Christ's merit, and the imputation embraced in the faith that is given: Finally, it is important to note that Athanasius did not consider the work of the Spirit to be limited to believers only. Whereas Athanasius strongly emphasised God's unity, the so-called Neo-Nicene party took up the task of further formulating the concept of the Trinity.

They spoke of three divine hypostases and thus, by implication, of the divinity of the Holy Spirit as well.

For these theologians, the consensus that the Spirit was homoousios was orthodox. Thus, the term applied in Nicea to the Son was also applied to the Holy Spirit. Three fathers from Cappadocia, once a province in Asia Minor and now a region in central Turkey, were members of this party. These fathers were Basilius the Great, bishop of Caesarea, his brother, Gregory, bishop of Nyssa a highly original thinker and mystic , and their mutual friend, the famous preacher, Gregory of Nazianzus, who was later given the title of 'The Theologian'.

We need not expand on how these thinkers, well versed in philosophy and especially in Neo-Platonism, found a common basis resulting in the formula mia ousia, treis hypostaseis [one being, three substances] Loofs It should not be denied that this doctrine of the Trinity a non-biblical term!

Unlike ever before, the intellectual achievements of Greek philosophers were used in and by the Church. Sietsma ; Slotemaker de Bruine The purpose of the Cappadocians was not to subordinate faith to philosophy, but to define the reality of faith in a scientific manner, especially the doctrine of the divinity of the Holy Spirit. In other words, they did not force Neo-platonic notions onto the Christian faith, but tried to employ philosophical categories in their description of it. One may compare this procedure with the theological method of their great contemporary in the West, the African theologian Augustine According to Augustine, Christian trinitarian faith is not established by philosophical reasoning.

Rather, the objective statements of faith reveal the principles and premises contained therein Augustine, De Trinitate 15, 6; CCL 50A, With regard to our current topic, credit should be given to Basilius for developing the theological concepts. More lucid than previously, as a result of philosophical reflection, the concepts of ousia [being, essence] and hypostasis [actualisation, mode of being] were differentiated. From reflection on the content of the biblical revelation he concluded that all three divine hypostases have the following in common: They are one unity of being, but each has special characteristics.

Typical of the first hypostasis is his 'uncreatedness' and Fatherhood; typical of the second hypostasis is his Sonship and the fact that he is the only begotten; typical of the third hypostasis is its sanctifying power and the fact that he proceeded from the Father. Common to all hypostases is their 'personhood'. This also applies to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit deserves equal honour homotimos and glory homodoxos , according to Basilius. Regardless of all the aforementioned information, Basilius does not use the word homoousios [of the same substance] in reference to the Holy Spirit.

Athanasius did use it explicitly. According to Basilius, dogma is something different from kerygma. Whereas the former is kept silent, the content of the latter should be proclaimed De Spiritu Sancto 27, 65 ff. De Boer , What we know of the three hypostases is kerygma, whereas their unity is dogma. However, it is doubtful that this is the only reason for Basilius's silence.

Sible de Boer Benoit Prusche, in his edition of Basilius's De Spiritu Sancto, is of the opinion that the prudent Basilius shunned the word homoousios because it was a charged term in the aftermath of the preceding Christological discussion SC 17; cf. Whatever the reason might have been, the divinity of the Holy Spirit is the very implication of Basilius's doctrine, regardless of whether or not he overtly expresses it with the term homoousios.

His friend, Gregory of Nazianzus, whose theology was deeply driven by a personal longing for salvation, explicitly states: Constantinople and the confession of the Holy Spirit. It was the theology of the Cappadocian fathers that united all parties at the council of Constantinople Ritter New creedal formulas about the Holy Spirit were added to the original Creed of Nicea And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.

The Creed of Nicea In this way, the Christian belief in the Holy Spirit is confessed in the only fully-ecumenical confession of faith, in other words, the only creed accepted by all main churches across the world. This creed is the result of a long doctrinal process. When this creed officially called the Niceno-Constantinopolitanum, or the Creed of Nicea as it was endorsed and supplemented at the council of Constantinople in speaks of the Spirit as being Lord and Giver of life, it reflects the theological conviction of Athanasius.

In the assertion about worship and glorification, we hear an echo of the pneumatology of Basilius Athanasius Ad Serap. One further observation can be made in this context. The words synproskynoumenon [worshipped together with] and syndoxadzomenon [florified together with], testify that thanksgivings, prayers and blessings are also directed at the Holy Spirit.

Hendrik Berkhof, in his famous and very influential Christelijk geloof first edition In the seventh edition The worldwide received confession of faith teaches the same thing. Moreover, such an understanding was and still is the explicit practice of Christian churches both in the eastern and western regions of the world.

The confession of the Holy Spirit. In the preceding paragraphs, I sketched the doctrinal development up to and including the famous council of Constantinople. Such a short overview of dogmas and formulas might result in a one-sided impression. We run the risk of thinking that the Church's dogma is simply some abstract teaching invented by the ingenuity of individuals.

I would rather argue for the opposite. True dogmatic reflection is aimed at expressing the mystery of God in the realm of human thinking, but without trying to unveil divine truth in a rationalistic manner. The dogma of the Trinity, and with it the dogma of the Holy Spirit, is an interpretation of who God is, expressed in rational words. It is not; however, a case of logical reasoning, but of confession.

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We now turn to this second and most important aspect of our subject. How did the oldest formulas, spoken at baptism, develop into the structured trinitarian confessions of faith that have been passed down to us? And what do they say about the Holy Spirit? From creedal formulas to symbols. John Norman Davidson Kelly in particular, in his famous book Early Christian Creeds, 14 demonstrated how age-old summaries of faith developed into well-known creeds, like the so-called Apostle's Creed or Apostolicum and the Niceno-Constantinopolitanum.

In the beginning of his book, Kelly incorporates important research results from, amongst others, Alfred Seeberg and Charles Harald Dodd Seeberg argues in his study on the catechism of primitive Christianity Der Katechismus der Urchristenheit that, from the Church's earliest times onwards, many fixed formulas existed. Also, in I Corinthians Other summaries, used for catechetical purposes, are Romans 1: Seeberg convincingly points out several fixed statements of faith 'Glaubenformeln' already present in the writings of the New Testament.

His conclusion is that the ancient Christian creeds, both in the Greek East and the Latin West , were structured in three parts according to the trinitarian confession taught during early Christian catechesis: To Seeberg, a pioneer of the so-called Formgeschichte Form Criticism in New Testament studies, it became clear that semi-formal confessions already existed in the earliest Christian congregations, occurring at baptisms, during worship, and in homilies and catechetical lessons.

Current Doctrinal Relevance of the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Texts like I Corinthians Apart from this declaration of faith, there are many other confessions that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God. The oldest formulas are not only about Jesus Christ, but also about God the Father, as can be seen in I Corinthians 8: Relatively clear 'trinitarian' formulas are also present, like, for example, II Corinthians From all these witnesses it is clear that, even from the very beginning, the perception of a triadic manifestation of God was anchored deep within the Christian faith.

But stress was also laid on the confession of both the Father and the Holy Spirit. By confessing the charismatic works of the Holy Spirit, believers professed their awareness of living in the Messianic era, the age of the New Covenant Van Unnik The practice of baptism played an important role in the process leading up to fixed confessions.

The commission to baptize in Matthew The three slightly different baptismal questions and answers increasingly expanded and, in so doing, gave birth to various Creeds or Symbols. I Clemens, Justin, Irenaeus. Not only in the writings which would become part of the New Testament, but also in Christian texts of the same era, such as the so-called 'Apostolic Fathers', we find 'triadic' and even primitive 'trinitarian' proclamations.

These statements speak of the Holy Spirit as well. Contesting the disagreement amongst the Corinthians, Clement emphasises unity, and in the process probably refers to the trinitarian formula of the baptism. Later on, the letter speaks in trinitarian terms again: The Christian elect believe in the triune God, a fact which, if seen in conjunction with some sort of oath formula, reminds of baptism thus Joseph Barber Lightfoot as referred to in Kelly Another source of trinitarian formulas and thus also of statements about the Spirit is Justin Martyr.

In his First Apologia, written in Rome in c.

They [the baptised] receive then a bath in water in the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. With regard to the Lord's Supper, he writes: Thereupon bread and a cup of wine mixed with water is brought to the president of the brethren. He takes them and gives praise and glory to the Father of the universe, through the name of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Also important in this context is Irenaeus.

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The canon of truth, 18 in later tradition generally known as the rule of faith regula fidei , 19 is not tied up in a fixed formula, but the content of it is. In his Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching, Irenaeus, probably the most important theologian of the second century, says: This then is the order of the rule of our faith, and the foundation of the building, and the stability of our conversation: God, the Father, not made, not material, invisible; one God, the creator of all things: The second article is: The Word of God, Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, who was manifested to the prophets according to the form of their prophesying and according to the method of the dispensation of the Father: And the third article is: The Holy Spirit, through whom the prophets prophesied, and the fathers learned the things of God, and the righteous were led forth into the way of righteousness; and who in the end of the times was poured out in a new way upon mankind in all the earth, renewing man unto God.

The same tradition exerts itself here as in the writings of Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian and Origen, to name only four examples Kelly Notwithstanding underlying variations, there is full agreement on the trinitarian structure in this tradition summarised in the 'rule of faith'. The confession of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is the unifying element.

In this confession, statements about the Spirit are constantly present and closely connected to the confession of the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit according to the Symbolum Romanum. The baptismal questions-and-answers formula developed into symbols. The early baptismal confession of the church in Rome is the most well-known example of a confession of faith receiving a fixed form. This must have happened either at the end of the second century Kelly Nevertheless, the difference between the work of proclamation or witness and that of theological reflection is not eliminated.

Universal proclamation, witness In this way we touch upon the literary genre of the Catechism, which is derived from its purpose. Its literary form is not fundamentally the debate - the "quaestio disputata" in the classic expression of theological work.

Its literary form is more than anything else the testimony, the proclamation that comes from the internal certainty of the faith. Even here clarifications have to be made: In the case of the Catechism of the Catholic Church , yet a further fact is added: The Pope notes, in the fourth point of the Apostolic Constitution Fidei Depositum , the progression of those to whom the Catechism is addressed, and to whom he has dedicated the book: I Pt 3,15 and who wants to know what the Catholic Church believes".

If one bears in mind that it is thus addressed not only to individuals with very different levels of preparation, but to all the continents and varied cultural situations, it is evident that this book cannot constitute the point of arrival in a process of mediations, but must undergo further mediations closer to the different situations. If it were to become more directly "dialogical" for a specific milieu - for example the Western intellectuals -, it would adopt their style, and be beyond the grasp of all the others.

Therefore, its style had to remain above specific cultural contexts and seek to address people in this way, leaving further cultural mediations to the respective local Churches. The fact that the Catechism has been received positively in completely different regions and social milieux demonstrates that the effort to make it understood beyond differences of preparation and culture has succeeded surprisingly well.

That it must be possible to express in words what we believe in a way that will be available for all, and thereby to draft such a book, should not be contested. Indeed, if it were not possible to write such a book, the unity of the Church, the unity of the faith, the unity of humanity, would be a fiction. But what shall we say now - prescinding from these formal problems - of the current doctrinal relevance of the Catechism?

If we wish to respond adequately, one after another we should go through its individual sections from beginning to end. In this way one could make many valuable discoveries and it would be possible to see how profoundly the Catechism has been shaped by the impulses of the Second Vatican Council, how much, even in its restraint from the point of view of specialized theology, it offers new impulses for theological work. A comparative examination of various themes would be instructive, such as, for example, ecumenism, the relationship between Israel and the Church, the relation between the faith and the world religions, faith and creation, symbols and signs, etc.

All of this is not possible here. I would like to limit myself to certain exemplary aspects, which have played a large part in the public debate. The Use of Scripture in the "Catechism' Particularly strong attacks were directed against the use of Scripture in the Catechism: With regard to the specific task of the Catechism, accurate reflection has to take place on the way in which this book should make use of historical-critical exegesis.

The Catechism has therefore dedicated a special article, numbers of the book - to a specific reflection on the right use of Scripture in the witness of the faith. Historical aspect In this regard, it is necessary to respond to the question: What is it that makes this to a certain extent heterogeneous literary collection, whose period of formation lasts for about a millennium, one single book, one single sacred book, which we interpret as such?

In the deeper examination of this question, we clarify the whole specificity of the Christian faith and of its concept of revelation. The Christian faith has its specificity, primarily in that it refers to historical events, or better to a coherent history, which actually took place as history. In this sense, the question about the fact, the reality of the event, is essential to it, and must make room for the historical method.

But these historical events have meaning for the faith only because it is certain that in them God Himself acted in a specific way and the events contain something which surpasses simple historical facticity, something which comes from elsewhere and gives them meaning for all times and for all people. This surpassing element must not be separated from the facts, it is not a meaning which is subsequently added to them from without, but rather it is present in the event itself, and yet it transcends the purely factual aspect.

The meaning of the entire biblical history is found precisely in this transcendence inherent in the fact itself. This specific structure of biblical history is reflected in the biblical books: The figure of the "author", which is so important for historical research, is therefore articulated on three levels: This is seen precisely in the ever new additions and modifications of the books. Here source criticism despite exaggerations and unproven hypotheses has led to valuable discoveries.

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In the end, it is not simply an individual author who speaks, rather the texts grow in a process of reflection, culture, and new understanding which surpasses each individual author. It is precisely in this process of continual surpassing, which relativizes the individual authors, that a more profound transcendence is at work: Bible as canon Whoever reflects upon this drama, here only very summarily treated, of the biblical word becoming Scripture, doubtless sees that its interpretation - even independent of the questions proper to the believer - must be externally complex.

One who, however, lives in the faith of this same people and finds himself within this process, in his interpreting, must take into account the ultimate reality which he knows is working in it. Then can one speak of theological interpretation, which in fact does not eliminate the historical, but expands it into a new dimension. Based upon such presuppositions, the Catechism has described the double dimension of correct biblical exegesis, to which the typical methods of historical interpretation belong, while - if one considers this literature as one single book, and still more a sacred book - other methodological forms must be added.

In numbers and , with reference to Dei verbum , n. Here one must treat the methodological elements which derive from the understanding of the books as one single book and as the foundation of the life of the People of God in the Old and the New Testament: I would at least like to cite the beautiful text which the Catechism uses to present the significance of the unity of Scripture illustrating it with a quotation from St Thomas: The phrase "heart of Christ' can refer to Sacred Scripture, which makes known his heart, closed before the Passion, as the Scripture was obscure.

But the Scripture has been opened since the Passion; since those who from then on have understood it, consider and discern in what way the prophecies must be interpreted' St Thomas Aquinas, Expos. Fourfold meaning of Scripture Also from the complex nature of the literary genre "Bible" comes the fact that the meaning of its individual texts cannot be confined to the historical intention of the first author - for the most part established in a hypothetical manner.

All of the texts are actually found in a process of continual rewriting, in which their potential richness of meaning is always being more fully disclosed, and therefore no text belongs simply to a single historical author. Since the text itself has a developmental character, it is not permissible, even based upon its literary genre, to confine it to a determined historical moment and to keep it there; in this case it would be confined to the past, while to read the Scripture as Bible means precisely that the present is found in the historical word, opening up a future. The doctrine of the multiple meanings of Scripture, which was developed by the Fathers and in the Middle Ages was given a systematic form, based today upon this particular concept of the formation of the text is again recognized as scientifically satisfactory.

The Catechism therefore briefly illustrates the traditional understanding of the four senses of Scripture - it would be better to say, of the four dimensions of the meaning of the text. There is first of all the so-called literal sense, that is, the historical-literary meaning, which an exegete seeks to re-present as the expression of the historical moment of the origin of the text. There is the so-called "allegorical" sense; unfortunately this discredited term prevents us from grasping exactly what it means. In the word, once you take it out of an earlier limited historical context, it actually contains a method of faith, which inserts this text within the whole of the Bible, and beyond that time directed as is every time, coming from God and going to God.

There is also a moral dimension - the word of God always gives direction for the journey, and, finally, there is the eschatological dimension, transcending the here and now, and moving toward what is definitive; tradition calls this the "anagogical sense". Scripture, Tradition and the Church This dynamic vision of the Bible in the context of the lived and continuing history of the People of God leads also to a further important insight about the essence of Christianity: This is an extremely important affirmation.

The faith does not refer simply to a book, which as such would be the sole and final appeal for the believer. At the centre of the Christian faith there is not a book, but a person - Jesus Christ, who is Himself the living Word of God and who is handed on, so to speak, in the words of Scripture, which in turn can only be rightly understood in life with Him, in the living relation with Him. And since Christ built and builds up the Church, the People of God, as His living organism, His "body", essential to the relation with him is participation in the pilgrim people, who are the true and proper human author and owner of the Bible, as has been said.

If the living Christ is the true and proper standard of the interpretation of the Bible, this means that we rightly understand this book only in the communal, believing, synchronic and diachronic understanding of the whole Church. Outside of this vital context, the Bible is only a more or less heterogeneous literary collection, not the signpost of a journey for our lives.

Scripture and tradition cannot be separated. The Catechism emphasizes this connection, which includes the interpretive authority of the Church, as the second Letter of Peter specifically states: Let us rejoice that, with this vision of the interpretation of Scripture, the Catechism is in agreement with important tendencies of the most recent exegesis. The canonical method of exegesis emphasizes the unity of the Bible as the principle of interpretation; synchronic and diachronic interpretation are being increasingly recognized in their equal dignity.

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