In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Vatican II's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, I will be posting twice a month, on Mondays, a paragraph from this important document. There are a total of 26 paragraphs, so this will take us through to the Fall when we reach the anniversary of its promulgation by Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965. I look forward to our discussion. May I suggest a helpful book by Fr. Ronald D. Witherup called The Word of God at Vatican II: Exploring Dei Verbum published by Liturgical Press.
1. Hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith, the sacred synod takes its direction from these words of St. John: "We announce to you the eternal life which dwelt with the Father and was made visible to us. What we have seen and heard we announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us and our common fellowship be with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:2-3). Therefore, following in the footsteps of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council, this present council wishes to set forth authentic doctrine on divine revelation and how it is handed on, so that by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love.
8 comments:
Tim,
Really excited for this series. I just started a blog over at www.oothew.wordpress.com, and you'll definitely be getting ping backs as this Bible Challenge thing continues. (Just got my NRSV Reference in today—it is indeed super awesome.)
You can find this article at the vatican website, right? Any other documents you'd recommend reading?
Erica,
Great! That is good to hear, both the bible and the blog.
Other resources? Along with the Witherup book you could also consult the Catechism, which talks about divine Revelation in the opening paragraphs. I'd also recommend Benedict's Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini.
If I might add:
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/pcb_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20020212_popolo-ebraico_en.html
Here is one more nice resource that can be found online:
http://catholic-resources.org/ChurchDocs/
Erica,
Which NRSV Reference did you wind up getting? Cambridge or Harper?
Cambridge. I'm not sure if the Harper had cross references or not. Maybe it did, but I really liked the Cambridge's center-column layout. It's very easy to use and reminds me of my father's old-school KJV. Of course, I'm not a Baptist anymore, but sentimentality sometimes wins out. Now that I think about it, the NRSV Reference is pretty similar to my father's Nelson KJV... Same type of reference layout and glossary in the back. :)
Erica,
Excellent! I have the 'older' Cambridge NRSV reference with the art-gilded pages (red under gold) but I believe it's the same layout as the one you just got. It's a GREAT Bible all around. Perfect size, great paper, clear and large font. Wonderful Bible! Enjoy!
Dave
PS... I still believe that every Christian should take at least one full trip through the KJV. It's still the greatest translation in English. :)
Personally, I love the KJV. Except for the Office and Lectio Divina most of my Bible "reading" these day is actually listening to Alexander Scourby's recording of the KJV, which I supplement with the DRV deutero-canonical books as found on Libri Vox.
Although, when it comes to "actually" reading the Bible, I do generally prefer a modern translation.
Be that as it may, I really wish Norton's had produced their KJV Commentary in hardcover because I would have gladly purchased one if they had. But unfortunately, I had my doubts as to how long a large paperback with glued pages was going to hold up.
Pax,
John
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