Thursday, May 19, 2005
TWEAK WITH SCRIPTURE AND SET OFF A REVOLUTION ?
A reader sent in a link to an older article from "Culture Wars" about the advent of the historical critical method in Catholic Biblical scholarship.
The article by Fr. Brian W. Harrison, O.S. first appeared in "Culture Wars" in 1999. Called the "Golden Legend", "The central idea is that modern 'scientific' man can no longer accept literally the world-view of the Bible - a world-view which includes belief in supernatural and preternatural interventions in the world of our experience: visions, miracles, fulfilled prophecies, demonic possession and exorcism, appearances of angels bearing messages from heaven, and so forth." Biblical stories thus had to become "myths", calling into question the inerrancy of Scripture.
The false "portrayal of Pope Pius XII as a liberal or even a revolutionary innovator in biblical matters is probably that aspect of the Golden Legend which stands in most urgent need of demytholigization, for not only does it seriously distort the position of that great Pontiff; it is also the main key to the current respectability of the Legend as a whole."
Ironically, 1960 was a pivotal year for this revolution, and 1960 is the year the Blessed Virgin designated in the Fatima prophecy as the year "the situation would be 'clearer'.
Is this revolution in Scripture scholarship the real cause of the heresy within, and the sexual abuse scandal? The article offers a good argument for making such a claim.
