TBD, but likely either some weekday evening or Saturday afternoon. Use the contact links at the bottom or the top of this page to let us know ASAP if you have a preference!
Meeting venue:
Online (via Zoom) and in-person options are possible. Any in-person meetings will happen in Roanoke, Virginia.
Amount of reading:
Typically 40-45 pages for each biweekly session; giving yourself a couple of days off, that makes a manageable 3-4 pages per day.
What it’s all about:
Nearly two decades before he was named Pope, then-Cardinal Josef Ratzinger surprised the scholarly world by proclaiming that Christians, himself included, no longer knew how to read the Bible. The church, he said, was experiencing a “crisis in Biblical interpretation,” and he predicted that it would take at least a generation to work out a way of reading that meets the new challenges facing scripture-readers today.
That generation’s work, it is fair to say, is still in progress. Faced with options like a thoroughgoing “historical-critical approach” that provides much useful insight but, left to itself, risks reducing scripture to the status of any other book; and like, at the opposite extreme, a literalist “fundamentalism” that insists on line-by-line inerrancy at the price of basic credibility -- many in the church have agreed with Ratzinger that a full account of a “third way” is desirable but not yet here.
We cannot, of course, solve the problem between now and June. But what we can do is dive into a rich source of ideas that will help us, individually and collectively, think more clearly about what the questions are and which sorts of answers are more and less viable, more and less attractive, today. That source is the “tradition” of the church. This spring we’ll begin with writings of medieval scholars like Bonaventure, Aquinas, and Nicholas of Lyra (and perhaps the monastics Bernard of Clairvaux and Hildegard of Bingen) who brought ancient approaches to scripture to one of their fullest flowerings. We’ll then enter the modern age with a look at the historical-critical approach that began to have influence in the late 17th century, considering both its initial rejection by many Christian communities and the eventual decision by many (including Ratzinger and his allies) that this modern approach is not only useful but necessary, provided that it is not taken as the final word on scripture’s meaning. We’ll close with the current state of the question, considering various recent attempts to combine the most useful elements of the modern and the traditional.
Our texts:
The purchase of a few books (from third-party sources) will be required; your convener will be in touch with titles and suggestions about how to find them economically, with used and new options usually available. Shorter readings will be distributed by .pdf for participants to print and read.
Commitment:
As with all our groups, you are welcome to come to as many, or as few, meetings as desired. Of course you'll get more out of it the more often you come!