Transcript Jesus’ Relationship with “Abba” and “God’s Spirit”

Dei Verbum
Dogmatic Constitution on
Divine Revelation
Status among the 16 Documents
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One of four constitutions
A dogmatic constitution (also Lumen gentium)
The primary constitution, according to the
“hierarchy of truths”
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Revelation
Church (ad intra) Lumen gentium
Liturgy (ad intra) Sacrosanctum concilium
Church and World (ad extra) Gaudium et spes
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Pre-History
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Trent
Vatican I
Prevailing Scholastic Approach Before Vatican
II
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Drafting
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First Draft
Second Draft
Third Draft
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Voting and Promulgation
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Voting 2,344 to 6
Promulgated 18 November 1965
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Structure and Chapter Content
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Prologue (#1)
1. Divine Revelation Itself (#2-7)
2. The Transmission of Divine Revelation (#7-10)
3. Sacred Scripture: Its Divine Inspiration and Its
Interpretation (#11-13)
4. The Old Testament (#14-16)
5. The New Testament (17-20)
6. Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church (#21-26)
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Seven Shifts in Church Teaching
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Revelation
Faith
Primary Receiver of
Revelation
Tradition and Scripture
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Magisterium and
Revelation
Interpretation of
Scripture
Scripture in Catholic
life
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Shift 1: The Nature of Revelation
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Revelation is the event of God the Father
reaching out to humanity, through Jesus Christ
in the power of the Holy Spirit
Any “information” about God (that can be
formulated into propositions) comes from that
primary personal encounter
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DV, 2
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“It pleased God, in his goodness and wisdom, to
reveal himself and to make known the mystery of his
will, which was that people can draw near to the
Father, through Christ, the Word made flesh, in the
holy Spirit, and thus become sharers in the divine
nature. By this revelation, then, the invisible God,
from the fullness of his love, addresses men and
women as his friends, and lives among them, in order
to invite and receive them into his own company…
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“… The pattern of this revelation unfolds through
deeds and words which are intrinsically connected:
the works performed by God in the history of
salvation show forth and confirm the doctrine and
realities signified by the words; the words, for their
part, proclaim the works, and bring to light the
mystery they contain. The most intimate truth thus
revealed about God and human salvation shines forth
for us in Christ, who is himself both the mediator and
the sum total of revelation.”
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DV, 6
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“By divine revelation God wished to manifest
and communicate both himself and the eternal
decrees of his will concerning the salvation of
humankind.”
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Paradigm Shift from Vatican I
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From a doctrinal-theoretical-propositional-ahistorical
notion (Vat I)
To an understanding of revelation as God’s trinitarian
SELF-communication in history
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Revelation is God’s outreach to humanity through Christ
in the power of the Spirit
This more personal-historical-communicative notion
nevertheless includes the propositional dimension of that
communication.
through compromise formulations, the document
attempts to hold in tension the two approaches
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God’s self-communication
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As God’s self-gift
As God’s Word or Address to humanity
As God’s self-disclosure
As God’s self-revelation (Barth)
As “the Gospel” itself
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Revelation as God’s Word
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God “addresses men and women as friends”
Scripture as “the written Word of God”
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“Word” here is a symbol whose referent is the
revelation event itself
Scripture is not revelation itself, but a
potentially revelatory text
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“unfolds through words and deeds”
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Revelation is not just pure communication of
words or information or decrees or
propositions of knowledge about God
It is a process of coming to know God
personally
“Paideia” - humanity’s education by God
This “personal knowledge” God reveals in
human experience through historical events
and persons
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Normative and Unsurpassable
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Jesus Christ is normative revelation
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All that we say about God must meet the norm
of the Christ event (as witnessed to in Scripture
and tradition)
Jesus Christ is unsurpassable revelation
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There is no further revelation of God beyond
Jesus Christ; revelation “ends” with the apostolic
period (as witnessed to in Scripture and
tradition).
However, the reception of the Christ event by the
church is never ending.
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Shift 2: The Nature of Faith
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a shift from faith predominately understood as
assent to beliefs about God
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to primarily a personal loving response to
God’s loving outreach
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this parallels Vatican I’s propositional notion of
revelation
this parallels Vatican II’s more personalist notion
of revelation
Dei Verbum seeks to balance both dimensions
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Revelation and the Holy Spirit
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Only the Holy Spirit can open our eyes to see,
recognise and interpret “the signs of the times”
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Faith and the Holy Spirit
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“For this faith to be accorded we need the
grace of God, anticipating it and assisting it,
as well as the interior helps of the holy Spirit,
who moves the heart and converts it to God,
and opens the eyes of the mind and ‘makes it
easy for all to accept and believe the truth.’
The same holy Spirit constantly perfects faith
by his gifts, so that revelation may be more
and more deeply understood.” (DV, 5)
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Shift 3: Primary Receiver of
Revelation - “the entire church”
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DV to be read in the light of LG
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LG, 12: “The holy People of God shares also in Christ’s
prophetic office… The whole body of the faithful who
have received an anointing which comes from the holy
one cannot be mistaken in matters of belief. It shows this
characteristic through the entire people’s supernatural
sense of the faith (sensus fidei)…”
“Tradition and scripture make up a single deposit of
the word of God, which is entrusted to the church. By
adhering to it, the entire church, united to its pastors,
remains faithful to…”
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Shift 4: Tradition and Scripture
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through compromise formulations, the
document attempts to hold in tension two
approaches
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a rejected but revised two-source theory
Scripture and tradition are two sources of revelation
 the source of revelation is God’s self gift
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a new approach that sees the Gospel of and about
Jesus Christ, the fullness of revelation, as the
single source of tradition and Scripture
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a parallel to the shift from a propositional to a more
personalist notion of revelation
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Holy Spirit and the Living Tradition
DV, 8b
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“The tradition that comes from the apostles
makes progress in the church, with the help of
the Holy Spirit. There is a growth in insight
into the realities and words that are passed
on…
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This comes about through the contemplation and
study of believers who ponder these things in their
hearts [theology]. It comes from the intimate sense of
spiritual realities which they experience [sensus fidei]
(tum ex intima spiritualium rerum quam experiuntur
intelligentia). And it comes from the preaching of
those who, on succeeding the office of bishop, have
received the sure charism of truth [magisterium]…
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Thus, as the centuries go by, the church is
always advancing towards the plenitude of
divine truth, until eventually the words of God
are fulfilled in it.”
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The Nature of Tradition
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a process
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“traditioning”
the products of the process
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“traditions”
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doctrines, liturgical traditions, spiritualities, Christian
practices
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“Living Tradition”: DV, 8b
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“What was handed on by the apostles
comprises everything that serves to make the
people of God live their lives in holiness and
increase their faith. In this way, the church, in
its doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and
transmits to every generation all that it itself is,
all that it believes.” DV 8
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Scripture and Tradition
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“Sacred tradition and sacred scripture, then, are bound
closely together, and communicate one with the other.
Flowing from the same divine well-spring, both of
them merge, in a sense, and move towards the same
goal…. Both scripture and tradition must be accepted
and honoured with equal devotion and reverence.”
DV, 9
“Tradition and scripture make up a single deposit of
the word of God, which is entrusted to the church.”
(DV, 10)
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Shift 5: Magisterium and Revelation
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the magisterium is not the primary receiver of
revelation, but rather “the entire church”
like the entire church, the magisterium is a servant to
that which the church has received: revelation (the
Word of God, witnessed to in the written Word of
God)
through compromise formulations, the document
attempts to hold in tension two approaches
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DV, 10: Revelation and Magisterium
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“Tradition and scripture make up a single deposit of
the word of God, which is entrusted to the church…
“This magisterium is not superior to the word of God,
but is rather its servant…
“It is clear therefore that … sacred tradition, sacred
scripture and the magisterium of the church are so
connected and associated that one of them cannot
stand without the others. Working together, each in its
own way under the action of the one holy Spirit, they
all contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.”
DV, 10
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Shift 6: Interpretation of Scripture
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1964 Pontifical Biblical Commission Doc
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acceptance of historical-criticism
genres, language, etc
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Inerrancy?
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once again, through compromise formulations,
the document attempts to hold in tension two
approaches
not factual truth
but “salvific truth”
“that truth which God wanted put into the sacred
writings for the sake of our salvation.” (DV, 11)
 the purpose of the Scriptures is human salvation
 “they told us the honest truth about Jesus” (DV, 19)
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Shift 7: Scripture in Catholic Life
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pre-history
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recognition of Scripture as
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Reformation debates on sola scriptura and role of
the church as authentic interpreter
“the soul of theology”
the basis of any “pastoral” renewal in the church
another example of the “reception” of
Protestant emphases
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Unresolved Tensions
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Ongoing history of salvation and the signs of
the times
God’s revelation and the “faith” of nonchristian believers
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