Does the Church think that Scripture is important?

During my various apologetic endeavours I have often heard the assertion that that Catholic Church doesn’t think much of Sacred Scripture. I have been told by well-meaning non-Catholics that the Church doesn’t care about God’s word and that our clergy do everything they can to keep the Bible out of the hands of their congregations.

When meeting with these assertions, I invite my interlocutors to peruse the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is the official compendium of all that we believe as Catholics. The section concerning Sacred Scripture begins at paragraph #101. It draws heavily from a Second Vatican Council constitution “Dei Verbum” (“Word of God”) and is a nice summary of that conciliar document.

So, what does the Church actually believe and teach about Sacred Scripture?

Bible

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Reading List Update

It’s time for a quick reading list update. So far this year, I’ve finished the following books

The Screwtape Letters The Great Divorce , Mere Christianity, Problem of Pain – C.S. Lewis
The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks – Penguin Classics
Every Man’s Journey – James P. Campbell
Hold Me Tight – Dr. Sue Johnson
After Jesus – Reader’s Digest
St. Francis of Assisi – G.K. Chesterton
Jesus of Nazareth – Pope Benedict XVI
Weaving The Web – Tim Berners-Lee*
Roots of the Reformation – Karl Adam*
The Confessions of St. Augustine – St. Augustine
Imitation of Christ – Thomas à Kempis

This month I finished:

Philosophy For Dummies – Thomas Morris
Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde

I am currently reading:

Jesus Among Other Gods – Ravi Zacharias

…which leaves the following books still unread:

The Path of Life – Cyprian Smith OSB
Introduction to the Devout Life – St. Francis de Sales
Rediscover Catholicism – Matthew Kelly
Everlasting Man – G.K. Chesterton

The article Reading List Update first appeared on RestlessPilgrim.net

OSAS & Three Cups of Tea: Cup 3

In the last two blog posts I critiqued the Scripture interpretations of Mack, a commentator on my Once Saved, Always Saved post. Mack had responded to my article, claiming that I had been misapplying Scripture passages to support my argument that it is possible to lose your salvation. If you would like to read my two previous replies, they are available here and here.

We have nearly finished looking at Mack’s commentary, so please pour yourself one last cup of tea and we’ll take a look at the final two passages…

tea

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