Biblical Exegesis and Church Doctrine

...Conservative fundamentalism does not respect the process of reflection, adaptation, and interpretation that is responsible for the fact that we even have a Scripture and that is clearly evident within Scripture itself...

...But, as such, it is not deficient...

...Father Brown argues that what is believed is Christian revelation embodied in the tradition of the church...

...They can be useful references for introductory courses or discussion groups, though the material on local churches has been better treated in the author's earlier works...

...One feels somewhat as though this material has simply been included to "clear the files" of recent talks the author has given...

...Polemic aside — and this is a very polemical book — Biblical Exegesis makes an important contribution toward clarifying what an orthodox Roman Catholic position about the relationship between exegesis and dogma is...

...One wishes that his detractors, both from the Bultmannian left and the "fundamentalists" of the radical Catholic right, had the intellectual integrity and patience that Father Brown exhibits in formulating his position...

...These developments are illustrated in doctrines of sacramental theology, priestly office, and Mariology, none of which has much explicit elaboration in Scripture...

...Father Brown challenges a number of misconceptions...

...Or is ignorant posturing, ideological name-calling, and consistent misrepresentation of others' work, such as Father Brown has repeatedly suffered, going to continue to be tolerated and even rewarded...

...Pheme Perkins The first five chapters of this book provide a forceful statement of the proper relationship between exegesis and doctrine in Roman Catholic theology...

...16 January 1987: 23...

...In seeing the movie The Chosen, I was struck by the respect with which the film's two fathers regarded each other...

...We need, for instance, to examine how the development(s) of doctrine speak from and to various cultural contexts...

...The additional five chapters on the diverse views of the Spirit, types of local churches, early preaching as reflected in Acts, the shroud of Turin, and exegetical errors in R. Laurentin's treatment of the infancy narratives are really peripheral to the argument of the first section...

...Of course, it is always useful to have such material available, but the reader will find the connections to the argument advanced in the first five chapters somewhat forced...

...It is a sad commentary on the intellectual life of contemporary Roman Catholicism that those with whom he is forced to dialogue do not respect a search for the truth...

...Certainly the shape of such reflection will be different in a Catholic context...

...In the first half of the book, also based on lectures, Father Brown does an excellent job of staking out a relatively conservative, centrist position on the relationship between exegesis and dogma...

...Both are students of Torah, one a Hasid and the other a twentiethcentury scholar, but each man honors the other's pursuit of the truth...

...Second, since Scripture cannot be divorced from the believing community, both liberal and conservative fundamentalism must be rejected...

...The political and ecclesial pressures from the extremes make it almost impossible for those of us who agree with his basic "centrist" position to engage in the kind of theological reflection which ought to follow on such a book...

...First, the "two sources" view of Scripture and tradition tends to create the misconception that dogma can be anything whether or not it has any connection to what is revealed in Scripture...

...We need to discuss the hermeneutical function of dogma in the interpretative task...

...As Father Brown acknowledges, we need to reflect on the issues being raised by "canonical criticism" among Protestant theologians...

...In living with that tradition, however, the community came to more articulate and even to some quite different ways of expressing the meaning of that revelation...

...But perhaps the saddest question the apologetic cast of this book raises for the reader is that with which we began this review Can the larger Catholic community learn, as it should, the values of scholarly inquiry, intellectual discipline, and civility...

...Liberal fundamentalism presumes that anything which has developed beyond the explicit intention of New Testament authors or the shaping of New Testament communities is to be treated as Jesus treated some of the Pharisees' "tradi22: Commonweal tions of the elders," as contrary to the revealed will of God...

...Most theological or ideological uses of New Testament scholarship in our time fall into either the conservative or liberal fundamentalism which Father Brown so rightly rejects...

...The New Testament is the first-century phase of that tradition...

...Father Brown has the well-deserved right to be among the "wise" in this regard...

...We all owe Father Brown a great debt for intellectual clarity and personal integrity...