Vatican II in its Context: Review of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Liturgy, Dei Verbum

CTC402: Vatican II in its Context

Assessment Task 1: Review of a Council document

A review of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum

In so far as it dealt with revelation, the First Vatican Council (1869-70) set out

its teaching1 against a religious and cultural background permeated by

Enlightenment rationalism, fideism and certain forms of deism. This teaching

presented revelation in terms of the communication of divine mysteries, the

doctrine of the faith and the deposit of revealed truths; these were embodied

to some extent in those inspired and inerrant works of Scripture that the

Church considered her own; they were received by the faithful by means of

what Newman would have called a ‘notional assent’.2 In his encyclical

Providentissimus Deus (1893), Pope Leo XIII cautiously recognised the value

of certain linguistic and exegetical studies that had been applied to Scripture

by mainly Protestant scholars. However this thawing of attitudes was halted

by the Church’s reaction to the Modernist crisis and pronouncements by

Popes Pius X (1903-14) and Benedict XV (1914-22) effectively silenced

Catholic thinkers such as Marie-Joseph Lagrange who were trying to promote

a more scholarly and critical reading of the Scriptures. After a couple of trying

decades for Catholic scholars a complete about-face in thinking about

revelation and scriptural study was achieved by Pius XII (1939-58) who in his

encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu (1942) inaugurated what has been called a

‘Magna Carta’ for biblical progress.3

Given Pope Pius XII’s encouraging remarks about responsible biblical

scholarship, it is perhaps surprising to learn that a draft document (‘The

1 cf the decree Dei Filius (1870)2 cf Newman, The Grammar of Assent, Longmans (1930), Chapter IV; for a fuller discussion see J Hick, Faith and Knowledge, Collins (1974), Ch 1: Faith as propositional belief.3 R. Brown et al (eds.), The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990), p. 11673

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Vatican II in its Context: Review of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Liturgy, Dei Verbum

Sources of Revelation’) on revelation presented to the Second Vatican

Council (1962-65) was very negative in its approach to biblical advances. The

Council Fathers themselves disliked the draft and rejected its narrow

propositional view of revelation, its ‘two source’ theory and its views on the

inerrancy of scripture. The final (fifth) draft, accepted by 2344 to 6, endorsed a

more balanced and broader view and provided a basis on which further

progress in the understanding of revelation could proceed. Dei Verbum has

six chapters including sections on revelation itself, its sources, the inspiration

and inerrancy of scripture, the Old Testament and the Gospels and Scripture

in the life of the Church.

Three distinct points can be made about revelation in Dei Verbum. First there

is a movement away from revelata (truths disclosed) to revelatio (personal

disclosure). God chooses to ‘reveal himself and to make known the mystery of

his will’.4 This self-revelation of God takes place in history ‘by deeds and

words which are intrinsically bound up with each other’.5 The appropriate

mode by which this revelation is received is not so much intellectual assent as

a faith by which ‘man freely commits his entire self to God’.6 Secondly Dei

Verbum emphasises the christocentric character of revelation. Contrasting

with the Vatican I decree Dei Filius dealing with the mystery of God in which

there is very little reference to Christ as a source of revelation, Dei Verbum

says that Jesus ‘completed and perfected Revelation’ 7 The God revealed in

Jesus is also the God who will be shown in his full glory in the Second

Coming of Christ. Dermot Lane points out that ‘this fullness of revelation in

Christ does not exclude growth and development in our appropriation of the

Christ-event … Thus the closure of revelation is in another sense its

openness for man in the life of the Christian community.’8 Lastly, contrasting

with the anti-Modernist condemnations of the appeal to experience when

4 DV, 2, p. 7505 DV, 2, p. 7516 DV, 5, p. 752, my emphasis.7 DV, 4, p. 7528 Dermot A Lane, The Experience of God: An invitation to do theology, Veritas 1981: Ch 2 p. 47

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Vatican II in its Context: Review of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Liturgy, Dei Verbum

considering revelation, Dei Verbum affirms that it was through experience that

Israel came to know the ways of God with men. 9

Concerning the question of the sources of revelation, Dei Verbum suggests

that the dichotomy of Scripture and Tradition (the ‘two sources’ idea) is

overcome by the realisation that there is but one source of which Tradition

and Scripture are different expressions. The document states that these two

sources ‘are bound closely together’ and ‘come together in some fashion to

form one thing’.10 The Council, in fact, leaves this difficult question unsettled.

Echoing Newman11, however, it does refer to the development of doctrine:

‘Thus, as the centuries go by, the Church is always advancing towards the

plenitude of divine truth, until eventually the words of God are fulfilled in her.’12

This implies that, while the seed of doctrine is found in Scripture, it is not

sufficient on its own to teach Catholic doctrine. Echoing Möhler,13 Dei Verbum

states that ‘the Church does not draw her certainty about all revealed truths

from the holy Scriptures alone. Hence, both must be accepted and honoured

with equal feelings of devotion and reverence’.14 As a rider to this it adds that

the authentic interpretation of Scripture has been entrusted to the Church but

immediately qualifies this by saying that ‘the Magisterium is not superior to the

Word of God, but its servant.’15

On the question of the inerrancy of Scripture, there is in the text16 an implied

qualification, namely that scriptural teaching is without error to the extent that

it conforms to the salvific purposes of God.17 It is up to the Church, proceeding

a posteriori and using whatever sound critical tools are available, to determine

precisely what those purposes are.

9 Cf DV, 14 p. 759.10 DV, 9 p. 75511 that is, in his Development of Christian Doctrine12 DV, 8 p. 75413 particularly his Unity in the Church or the Principle of Catholicism14 DV, 9 p. 75515 DV, 10 p. 75616 DV, 11 p. 757 ‘Since … all that the inspired authors … affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture, firmly, faithfully and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see confided to the sacred Scriptures.’17 See The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, op cit. p 1169.

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Vatican II in its Context: Review of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Liturgy, Dei Verbum

A. Hastings has remarked that the two short chapters on the two Testaments

are ‘most valuable for what they do not say’18, avoiding as they do the

censures and warnings that some at the Council were seeking.

Dei Verbum concludes by drawing parallels between Scripture and the

Eucharist: both are offered from one table as sustenance to the faithful.19 It

urges the faithful to read the Bible, quoting St Jerome’s dictum that “Ignorance

of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ”.20 Finally, comparing Dei Verbum with

Dei Filius, Paul McPartlan observes that, as against Dei Filius’ rationalist and

metaphysical anthropology, the understanding of man implied in Dei Verbum

is personalist and not exclusively cerebral.21

The Council stated that the mission of the Church is above all to “reveal the

mystery of God, who is the ultimate goal of man.”22 Dei Verbum contributes to

this mission by inviting Catholics to see revelation as a relational encounter

involving the whole person.

1027 words

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Austin Flannery OP (Ed), Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar

Documents, Costello (1975)

R Brown et al (Eds), The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, (1990)

A Hastings, Modern Catholicism, (1991)

A. Lane, Christian Thought, Lion (1984)

D A Lane, The Experience of God, Veritas (1981)

18 A. Hastings, Modern Catholicism, (1991) p. 7619 DV, 21 p. 76220 see Jerome, Comm. in Isaias, Prol.: PL 24, 17.21 See Paul McPartlan notes Revelation: Vatican I to Vatican II with reference to DV, 25 p. 76422 Gaudium et Spes, 41.22

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Vatican II in its Context: Review of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Liturgy, Dei Verbum

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