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Questions
to Guide Your Reading
The Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum), ch. III 1. In the Second Vatican Council's Constitution on Divine Revelation, chapter 3 deals with "divine inspiration and the interpretation of sacred Scripture." What is the foundational principle by which the whole chapter is understood? What does the document compare the inspiration of sacred Scripture to at the end of this chapter? 2. According to the Council, what can we believe about the sacred Scriptures because of our faith in the divine authorship of the text? (You must be very careful to state this principle accurately.) 3. According to the Council, what must we take into account due to the human authorship of the text, and why? 4. According to the Council, why is it permissible to use
other, later books in the Scriptures to help us interpret earlier ones? 5. In class, I suggested some reasons why it might not be
advisable to think of the Genesis creation story as narrative
history. If we consider the story with a view to the human
author, why would it be strange to think of this story as narrative
history? What about divine inspiration? What reasons might
suggest that the text is also not meant to be a recounting of divine
dictation from God of specific events? What about the other
references to creation in the Bible? What evidence do they
provide? |