Chapters of Bible Study: A Popular Introduction to the Study of the Sacred ScripturesHeuser, Herman J. (Herman Joseph)
Religion
Chapters of Bible Study: A Popular Introduction to the Study of the Sacred Scriptures
Heuser, Herman J. (Herman Joseph)
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.; Bible -- Study and teaching -- Catholic Church
"Yet whilst we may not consider Moses as anticipating the
investigations of a Newton, a Laplace, or a Cuvier, there are cases
where the natural purpose and context of the sacred writers develop an
exact harmony with the facts of science of which former ages had no
right conception. Such are the creation by successive stages, the
unity of species, and origin of the human race, etc. But these facts
are _not proposed as scientific_ revelations."
In all important questions as to the agreement of the Bible with the
results of scientific research we may have recourse with perfect
confidence to the living teaching of the Church; where she gives no
decision there we are at liberty to speculate, provided the results of
our speculation do not conflict with explicit and implied doctrines of
truth, that is to say, they must be in harmony with the general analogy
of faith.
There is one other topic which I would touch upon in speaking of the
use and abuse of the Bible; it is a view which the late Oliver Wendell
Holmes is supposed to have advocated. The author of "The Professor at
the Breakfast Table" believed that it would be advantageous if the
Bible were, as he terms it, _depolarized_, that is to say, if the
translations or versions made from the originals were put in such form
as to appeal to the imagination and feelings of the present generation
by substituting modern terminology and figures of speech for the old
time-honored words of Scriptural comparisons. The aim would be, as I
understand it, to do for the written word of God what the Salvation
Army leaders are attempting to do for nineteenth century Christianity
in general.
In answer to this suggestion it may be said that the attempt has been
made in various ways, and seemingly always without result for the
better. As we have versions of St. Paul's Epistles in Ciceronian
Latin, so we have had travesties of the Gospels intended to popularize
the moral maxims they contain. If it is question of making the Bible
accessible to the people for the purpose of getting them to read it,
devices of this kind may succeed to a degree with those who look for
novelty. As to its essential form, the Bible is popular,--appeals to
all minds and conditions. This is proved by the experience of
centuries, in every clime and among all races.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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