Consuming the Word 6: The Church of the New Testament

This chapter, which speaks on the importance of apostolic succession and tradition, can best be summed up in this concluding sentence: "From Clement through Eusebius, from Basil through Leo, the Fathers of the early Church knew - and not only knew, but took for granted - that every written word of the New Testament presupposed the enactment of the liturgy of the New Testament in the Church of the New Testament (56)."

For Christ did not establish a school of scribes before he ascended to heaven.  Instead, it is clear that he founded a Eucharistic community, built upon the Apostles, who were sent out to proclaim the Gospel to all nations.

New Hahn Book due in Early 2013

Image Books description:

“From the bestselling author of The Lamb’s Supper and Signs of Life comes an illuminating work that unlocks the many mysteries of the Catholic sacrament of the Eucharist.
Long before the New Testament was a document, it was a sacrament. Jesus called the Eucharist by the name Christians subsequently gave to the latter books of the Holy Bible. It was the “New Covenant,” the “New Testament,” in his blood. Christians later extended the phrase to cover the books produced by the apostles and their companions; but they did so because these were the books that could be read at Mass. This simple and demonstrable historical fact has enormous implications for the way we read the Bible.

In Breaking the Bread: A Fresh Approach to the New Testament, Dr. Scott Hahn looks closely at the Road to Emmaus story in the Gospel of Luke as well as at the practices of the early Church to draw lessons for Christians today–lessons for using the Bible in prayer, studying the Bible in fellowship with others, applying scripture to the moral life, and so much more.”

Until then, you can pick up the newest Letter and Spirit Journal 7: The Liturgical Context of Patristic Exegesis

(HT: Brandon)

Dr. Scott Hahn on 5 Years w/ Benedict XVI

On the fifth anniversary of Pope Benedict's election to the Papacy, Dr. Scott Hahn published a short piece in the National Catholic Register focusing on the Pope's impact on Biblical studies within the Church. Hahn shows how Benedict has devoted a lot of time and ink to building up Biblical studies in the Church. Of course this is nothing new for Benedict, whose many works were saturated with the Scriptures well before his election to the See of Peter. While this article is not very long, you can get a more comprehensive understanding of Pope Benedict's Biblical theology in Hahn's Covenant and Communion: The Biblical Theology 0f Pope Benedict XVI. As Hahn puts it at the end of the NCR article: "I believe this will be his lasting legacy to the Church: to restore the word of God to its rightful place at the center of Church life." I agree 100%.