Catholic Church published document that warns of Literalism

I have to say, I was really surprised to read this article.

THE hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church has published a teaching document instructing the faithful that some parts of the Bible are not actually true.

In the document, the bishops acknowledge their debt to biblical scholars. They say the Bible must be approached in the knowledge that it is “God’s word expressed in human language” and that proper acknowledgement should be given both to the word of God and its human dimensions.

As examples of passages not to be taken literally, the bishops cite the early chapters of Genesis, comparing them with early creation legends from other cultures, especially from the ancient East. The bishops say it is clear that the primary purpose of these chapters was to provide religious teaching and that they could not be described as historical writing.

I'd always thought of the Catholic church as a conserverative organization. But this seems rather progressive. And, surprisingly, the same arguments I have made on occasion.

The document, The Gift of Scripture, also warns about literal interpertations of the Bible, and Fundamentalism.

“Such an approach is dangerous, for example, when people of one nation or group see in the Bible a mandate for their own superiority, and even consider themselves permitted by the Bible to use violence against others.”

The Gift of Scripture was issued as part of the 40th anniversary celebrations of Dei Verbum, the Second Vatican Council document explaining the place of Scripture in revelation.

From: www.timesonline.co.uk...
www.ekklesia.co.uk...


Further information can be found at:

www.catholic-ew.org.uk...

www.vatican.va

www.cliftondiocese.com...

www.scmo.org.uk...

mod edit to shorten link

[edit on 8-10-2005 by DontTreadOnMe]

It shows that the Vatican accepts science from the 19th century once and for all.

Which is good.

In another hundred years they'll say: 'Well maybe condoms do stop AIDS...'

And 300 years after that they will apologise to the relatives of the millions who were needlessly infected after following blind dogma over common sense.

As I said on this thread, it is only 5 bishops in the UK who have made this declaration. Unless it comes from the Pope or the Vatican, Catholics in general do not necessarily agree.

Originally posted by junglejake
As I said on this thread, it is only 5 bishops in the UK who have made this declaration. Unless it comes from the Pope or the Vatican, Catholics in general do not necessarily agree.

My apologies for missing the other thread. I'll keep my comments to that thread instead. Thank you.

I posted this here in this forum, because it does weigh in in the Creationism arguments.






[edit on 8-10-2005 by Jadette]

In fact, though it's not always acknowledged, ALL sects treat parts of the Bible as being "not true." These Not True sections go by different names: "teaching stories", "inspirational verse", "poetic metaphor", and "stuff we pretend isn't there."

The ostrich (Job 39: 12-18) verses, for example, show poor understanding of the behavior of the real birds and so is declared "metaphor." And it works okay as metaphor but if you take it for biology and go ostrich ranching, you're going to be appalled at how little Yahweh knows about the birds he created.

"Stuff we pretend isn't there" material includes the sacrifice of humans to Yahweh (Num.31:25-29 -- the "heave offering" meant that the sacrificial victim (and note that the verse says humans WERE included) was killed and his or her body parts were waved around up in the air.) and the sacrifice of Jepithah's daughter for a victory (Judges.11:29-40 )

And I haven't seen any fundamentalists kill their disobedient children (they say they believe in the Bible absolutely.

I think they're simply making plain a pracitce that ALL Christians have, and it's a little hypocritical to be shocked over it.

Originally posted by junglejake
As I said on this thread, it is only 5 bishops in the UK who have made this declaration. Unless it comes from the Pope or the Vatican, Catholics in general do not necessarily agree.

its the old...let's cover all the bases routine.
the Vatican, can float the idea/premis, by seeing the lay peoples response
to a few 'maverick' clergy ideas.
then neither supporting nor condeming the issues...the Vatican just kinda vibrates-in-place, for however long it takes.
in the meanwhile they say
'welcome everyone...as you can see, diverse positions are acceptable...
kindly recognise the poor-box slot as you depart, today'

the Uncle Joe reply is not really dissimilar from mine...or vise-versa