Website design By BotEap.comA young Catholic growing up in the years before the Second Vatican Council would find it very curious to find that Biblical teaching is the “Soul of all theology” (Richard Gula’s Dei Verbum, p. 165, FAITH-INFORMED REASON). My experience as a student in a Catholic elementary school during the years before the Second Vatican Council is that there was very little teaching of the Scriptures at that time.

Website design By BotEap.comIn fact, despite the fact that Vatican II sparked a renewed emphasis on Scripture, many non-Catholics still view the Catholic Church as devoid of a biblical foundation. Chapter 12, “Scripture in Moral Theology” (Gula, p165) contains an overview of critical use of Scripture and pre-critical use of Scripture and then engages in a discussion of Scripture as a basis for decision making. moral decisions.

Website design By BotEap.comToday, Catholics almost universally understand the need for critical analysis in the use of Scripture. However, a contrary use of Scripture is to employ a method called proof text. To understand this method, one must first accept the fact that some place more emphasis on natural law than on Scripture.

Website design By BotEap.comUsing this theory, after an issue is determined on the basis of natural law, a review of the Scriptures is conducted to corroborate the natural law position. Therefore, as Gula says, it is a kind of afterthought or an attempt to justify natural law. Furthermore, “While giving the appearance of a biblical basis to moral theology, the proof texts do not really allow Scripture to enter the fabric of moral theological reflection” (Gula, p.166).

Website design By BotEap.comWhile critical use of Scripture tends to discount the validity of prooftexts, Steven D. Cline, in his article, “In Defense of the Prooftext,” argues that the problem is not the prooftext, but more well the misuse of the biblical text that should be in question. Says Mr. Cline: “Those among us who despise proof texts may not have in mind distorting Scripture. I have an idea that they mean that we should discard the honorable practice of giving book, chapter, and verse when we undertake to teach a biblical truth” (Crane, bible-infonet.org). He goes further and uses examples where Jesus used Old Testament passages to support his teaching and argue for the proof text method. He also discusses Peter’s great sermon in Acts in which the Old Testament is quoted as another validation of the proof texts. I am not sure if Mr. Cline is a Catholic or not, but from some of his comments on denominationalism I get the impression that he is not. His arguments are not without merit despite this fact.

Website design By BotEap.comThe critical use of Scripture requires an analysis of the passages from different perspectives. Gula draws on Kenneth R. Himes’ analysis to explain four related tasks that a person must engage in to relate Scripture to moral theology. They are “…(1) the exegetical task: determining the meaning of the text in its original context; (2) the hermeneutical task: determining the meaning of the text for today; (3) the methodological task: using scripture in moral reflection ;(4) the theological task: to explain the relationship of Scripture with other sources of moral wisdom” (Gula, p.167).

Website design By BotEap.comCelia Brewer Marshall in her book, A Guide Through the New Testament, defines exegesis as, “…the term New Testament students use to describe what they are doing when trying to see what a New Testament passage meant.” when it was written.” written for the first time” (Marshal, p.15). Criticism of passages, therefore, not as a fault-finding exercise, but as analysis is our effort to discover what the text meant at the time of writing it because that has a profound influence on what it should mean to us today.Ms. Marshal lists several areas of critical analysis.They are textual, source, form, writing, and literary analysis.

Website design By BotEap.comThe textual compares the language used in a particular passage in various translations. For example, you may find different wording in the New American Bible than in the Revised Standard or King James Version. The second analysis is the source. Ms. Marshal says that, “Critical source theories are just that: hypotheses that may or may not be helpful in comparing the Gospels” (Marshal, p. 15). She goes further to explain that source analysis is not really an issue in the other books of the Bible, but only in the Gospels.

Website design By BotEap.com“Form criticism tries to go back to the written documents and see what the individual units might have been like in their pre-literary form” (Marshal, p. 15). Ms. Marshal explains that editorial criticism sees authors as publishers and looks at the way Bible stories are “edited.” Literary how just look at what can be learned from the text. Gula says that, “However limited, careful exegetical work is the crucial first step leading to the satisfactory fulfillment of the other tasks in the use of Scripture in moral theology” (Gula p.168).

Website design By BotEap.comCritical analysis allows us to arrive at the original meaning of a text and hermeneutics allows us to bridge the cultural gap between the culture of the writers and the culture of the readers. Dr. Brian Allison says, “Biblical hermeneutics is critical and foundational to the entire theological (and apologetic) enterprise” (Allison, Biblical Hermeneutics: An Alternative Paradigm). Gula affirms that this analysis is very important and uses some examples to illustrate his position. Allison, on the other hand, seems to say in his article that cultural-historical differences are not that important. It is an interesting analysis and I am attaching it here for your interest. I agree with Gula in what he points out in his example that the eschatological setting of the first century puts some of the proclamations made by Jesus in a different perspective. Once a person has carried out an analysis of the text, he is in a position to use it in the decision-making process.

Website design By BotEap.comThe methodological task is to put writing to use in moral reflection and decision making. Gula relies on Gustafson to explain that there are two ways to view the direction given in Scripture. Revealed morality is seeing the text as a guideline for action. He breaks down revealed morality into four subsections, law, ideals, analogies, and great variety. For me it’s a kind of hierarchy where the law is the fundamentalist view where the Word is the law and that’s it. From there, he moves to a view in which the Word is a set of ideals and not just rules to follow. Third, by analogy, one can compare Biblical stories and apply them by analogy to current situations. The great variety, as described by Gula, is a kind of middle ground between revealed morality and revealed reality, which Scripture considers only informative and not specifically determinative of morality. A great variety seems to say that Scripture is important but that it is not all-inclusive. It allows for intellectual reflection and other sources as the basis for moral reflection as does the revealed reality approach.

Website design By BotEap.comIn his analysis of the revealed reality approach, Gula discusses the covenant and the kingdom of God. The covenant according to Gula is the response we give to God’s offer of love. God calls us and gives us some structure for the relationship. This structure is found in the rules and commandments and, as Gula says, they are “…presumptions and burdens of proof for the moral life” (Gula, p.173). In a covenant relationship, we join our God by accepting his love and his way of life. Gula then discusses the kingdom of God as another way of looking at revealed reality. “The kingdom of God is not a place, but a community-creating activity in which each person experiences a strong sense of solidarity with others. The alliance with God allows us to begin to relate to others; likewise, the alliance with him it allows us to experience the “shalom” kind of peace. We find Jesus giving us direction in scripture on how to move into this kind of existence. It is more than just rules to follow. It is a step toward a life of hope lived through reverence , conversion and responsibility Hope “…always points to the love of God as the basis for the realization of new possibilities for human well-being, hope is the source of our energy to respond creatively to the new possibilities of recreating society” (Gluttony, p. 177).

Website design By BotEap.comContrast revealed reality with revealed morality and you’ll find that the latter focuses on the “black and white” of everything. But if one believes that the Scriptures are given to us as a set of laws to blindly follow, then what are we to make of the radical sayings of Jesus? Are they just figures of speech? Gula considers Jesus’ message to gouge out your eye if he makes you sin. Jesus came to save us. He came to offer forgiveness. “Gouging out an eye” is contrary to his message. Therefore, she would suggest that they are not directives like the great commandment, but rather are attempts to get our attention and make us think about the relevance of the message. Blindly following all the passages of Scripture leaves no room for the stimulation of our creativity and imagination. It seems to me that there are some rules to follow and there are passages in Scripture that give us those rules. In addition, there are stories, exaggerations, and other literary devices that allow us to creatively interpret the “rules” and apply them.

Website design By BotEap.comIn a final attempt to reconcile the difference between revealed reality and revealed morality, Gula discusses the great commandment. It would seem that there is little room to dispute what Jesus tells us when he answers the Pharisees’ question in Matthew 22. “He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is similar: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets depend on these two commandments” (Matthew, 22:37-40). Here are a good illustration of the difference between revealed morality and revealed reality. In a revealed morality sense, you take this literally and love everyone. However, what is love and how should we live in love? Requires critical analysis to understand what Jesus means by His directive to love your neighbor. What is neighbor? Is it the person next door? Is it the person from our block? What is neighbor? And what is love. If our neighbor is of the opposite sex, should we “love” that person in a male-female way?Certainly, taking Jesus literally is not as easy as it seems at first. Therefore, we look at the reality behind the statement and take direction from it and then create the reality that we are going to live in from that analysis.

Website design By BotEap.comThere are many different opinions about the use of Scripture in the development of moral theology. The search for an absolute can be noble, however the best search for me would be to educate myself not only on the words of the Bible but also about the Bible. By learning about the Bible, we can gain an understanding of its place in our lives and use the messages it provides to help us in our attempts to make moral choices that enable us to live our lives according to God’s will.