Catholicism For Dummies. Rev. Kenneth Brighenti
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responds differently — at different levels, at different times, and in different ways. Some reject it, some ignore it, and some treat it casually. Others cherish their faith deeply. As the adage goes: For those who believe, no explanation is necessary, and for those who do not believe, no explanation is possible.
Having Faith in Revelation
Catholic faith involves more than just believing that God exists. It’s about believing in God as well as whatever God has revealed. Objectively, you can look at faith as the sum total of the truths God reveals, which form the basis for the doctrines of the Church and are often called the deposit of faith — the doctrines of the Church. Subjectively, you can consider faith as your personal response (assent) to those revealed truths.
We hear ya: “But what do you mean by revealed truths? And, for that matter, just what are God’s revealed truths?” By revealed truths, we mean revelations, God’s unveiling of supernatural truths necessary for human salvation. (The word revelation comes from the Latin revelare, meaning “to unveil.”) Some of these are truths that you could never know by science or philosophy; the human mind is incapable of knowing them without divine intervention, so God revealed them to mere mortals. For example, the revealed truth of the Holy Trinity is that there is only one God but three persons (not three gods, mind you). This truth is something that the human intellect could never discover on its own; God had to tell that one Himself.
Other revelations, such as the existence of God, can be known by using human reason alone (see the later section “Backing Up Your Faith with Reason: Summa Theologica”), but God reveals these truths directly anyway because not everyone understands them at the same time and in the same way. The essence of these revelations can be — and is presumed to be — knowable to anyone with the use of reason; so, for example, someone can’t claim he didn’t know it was wrong to commit murder. But because of original sin (see Chapter 8), some of the applications and distinctions of these basic truths require more reasoning and thinking. To even out the playing field, God revealed some important truths so that even those people who aren’t intelligent or quick-minded won’t be caught off guard.
The written word: Known also as Scripture or the Bible
The spoken word: Also called the unwritten word or Sacred Tradition
Both the spoken and the written word come from the same source and communicate the same message — the truth. The written word and the spoken word of God are not in competition with one another, nor do Catholics believe one at the expense of the other. Rather, the written word and the spoken word have a mutual partnership. Whenever and wherever the Bible is silent on an issue or its meaning is ambiguous or disputed, the spoken word (Sacred Tradition) steps in to clarify the matter. Catholics believe that God’s word reflects what’s in His mind, and because God is all truth and all good, His word conveys truth and goodness. Catholics have deep respect for and devotion to the Word of God.
Faith in the written word: The Bible
Catholicism is a biblical religion. Like all Christian religions, it cherishes the Bible as the inspired, infallible, inerrant, and revealed Word of God. Having faith in the following aspects of the Bible is crucial to being Catholic:
The belief in the Bible as one of the two channels of revelation
The literal and figurative interpretation of the biblical text
The belief in the Catholic Bible as the most authoritative text
Believing in two forms of revelation
Catholic Christianity and Eastern Orthodox Christianity believe in one common source of divine revelation (God Himself), but they believe the revelation is transmitted to us through two equal and distinct modes: the written word (the Bible) and the spoken word (the unwritten word). Protestant Christianity regards the Bible as the only source of divine revelation. Another way of looking at it is to think of some Christians as seeing only one channel of revelation — sola scriptura, which is Latin for “Scripture alone” — and Catholic Christians as seeing two channels of revelation — both the written word and the unwritten word of God. (Just divert thine eyes to the later section “Faith in the spoken word: Sacred Tradition” for an explanation of what the unwritten word is.)
Interpreting sacred literature both literally and figuratively
Catholics regard the Bible as the inspired and revealed Word of God, but it’s also seen as a collection of sacred literature. Rather than just looking at the Bible as one big book, Catholicism treats the Bible as a collection of smaller books under one cover: the Word of God written by men yet inspired by God. Since the time of the Reformation, opinion on the interpretation of the sacred text has differed significantly. Some Christians hold for a literal interpretation of every word and phrase of Scripture; other Christians hold for a faithful interpretation, which is sometimes literal and sometimes not. (In other words, some text is meant to be interpreted figuratively.) Catholics belong to the second camp.
The Bible tells the history of salvation, but it’s much more than a history book. It contains the Psalms of David — songs that the king wrote in honor of God — yet the Bible is much more than a hymnal. It contains poetry, prose, history, theology, imagery, metaphor, analogy, irony, hyperbole, and so on. Because it’s not exclusively one form of literature, as you would have in a science textbook, one needs to know and appreciate the various literary forms in the Bible in order to interpret it as the author intended.
For example, when Jesus says in the Gospel (Mark 9:43), “And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off,” the Catholic Church has interpreted that to be a figure of speech rather than something to be taken literally. At the same time, Catholicism interprets literally the passage of John 6:55 — “For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed.” Because individuals can disagree on what should be interpreted literally and what shouldn’t, Catholicism resorts to one final authority to definitively interpret for all Catholics what the biblical text means for the Catholic faith. That ultimate authority is called the Magisterium (from the Latin word magister meaning “teacher”), which is the authority of the pope and the bishops around the world in union with him to instruct the faithful. (For more on the Magisterium, see Chapter 6.) Catholics believe that Christ founded the Church (“I will build my Church” [Matthew 16:18]), a necessary institution, to safeguard and protect revelation by authentically interpreting the biblical texts. The Church is not superior to Scripture, but she’s the steward and guardian as well as interpreter of the inspired and revealed Word of God. The Church assumes the role of authentic interpreter not on her own but by the authority given her by Christ: “He who hears you, hears me” (Luke 10:16). The Church makes an authentic interpretation and an authoritative decision regarding those issues that aren’t explicitly addressed in Sacred Scripture, but only because Christ has entrusted her to do so. To find out how the Church views tough modern-day issues that aren’t addressed in the Bible, flip to Chapter 14.
BIBLE TRIVIA
Want a few interesting Bible tidbits? You got