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Biblical
Fundamentalism?
Greetings in Christ! First of all, thank you for a very informative magazine, The Catholic Faith, which has been a great source of nourishment for me. I do hope that you will do future issues rather soon on Ecu menicism and Vatican II, it will help me get a better bearing as to where your magazine and those who write in it are at on these two most important areas. Sometimes I get the feeling that some who write in your pages would not even consider Protestants Christians as part of the Redeemed Body of Christ, even though not in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.
I also write to you on the article in your latest issue on “Raymond Brown and the Magnificat” by Tho mas W. Case. It is clear from the article that Mr. Case, who is entitled to his opinions, is not qualified to write such an article. He betrays a naive level of knowledge of biblical paleography, linguistics, and the history of the New Testament texts. He cites a 1996 book, which has yet to stand the test for its conclusion. Furthermore, that book is relevant to Gospel of Matthew. Each gospel has its own paleographical history, to lump them all together is careless methodology at best. Like a Bible Fundamentalist he tells the reader to simply read the texts from Luke and I Samuel and all will be clear. Hebrew and Greek would go a long way here, including textual history, etc. He attacks Raymond Brown for using ad hominem statements, but Mr. Case fails to produce a single reputable scholar of Brown’s caliber to disagree with him. I am sure there are. This is precisely my point. Your readers would have been better served to have a biblical scholar offer a response to Brown’s theses on this passage of scripture. Ray mond Brown enriched us immensely at the biblical and pastoral level through his writings. Unfor tun ate ly, your readers are going to see him as a liberal biblical scholar not to be trusted and shunned by all ‘true’ be lievers. Intended (which I believe he does) or not, Mr. Case leaves the reader with that impression of Brown and it is most unfortunate. For the sake of your magazine you need to choose authors who are clearly qualified to treat their respective topic, which in most cases you do. Mr. Case was way out of his league.
Pax et gratia in Christo,
Feast of Catherine of Genoa
Alberto Ferreiro
Seattle Pacific University
Department of History
Seattle, Washington
Mr. Case responds:
The arguments Raymond E. Brown makes in his Birth of the Messiah do not depend on his, or his readers’, knowledge of the ancient Near Eastern languages. He offers every New Testa ment and Old Testament phrase in Eng lish translation for study and comparison. My own background includes years of graduate work in philosophy, with attention to the structure of arguments. I should have cited one eminently qualified biblical scholar who opposes Brown’s skepticism: Rene Laurentin, specifically his book The Truth of Christmas (1986).
What is the Catholic Faith?
The Catholic Faith is God’s gift of religion. It is the complete attachment and total entrusting of the individual human person to the Di vine Person, Jesus Christ, true God and true man. The encounter with Christ takes place through the me dium of the Catholic Church which He instituted. Here we learn that God has revealed Himself as One in Being, but Three in Person, the Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; furthermore, we learn that Jesus Christ is God the Son, the Se cond Person of this Blessed Trinity. It is through the Church that we learn the central fact of history: that God became man, that the all-powerful Lord of the Universe locked Himself in the Virgin Mary’s womb and was born a helpless babe. It is through the Church that we learn of Christ’s supreme Sacrifice for us on Calvary, that while we were yet sinners He emptied Himself and gave His life for us. We learn too of His glorious Resurrection which frees us from our sins and allows us to be God’s children and heirs.
This Church through God’s own authority gives us the seven sacraments, the primary means by which Christ unites Himself to us. Through His authority the Church interprets faithfully the Bible and Divine Tradition and applies the rock of true morality to new situations as they unfold in our dynamic world. Through the Church we receive faith, hope, and charity by which we directly touch God, “The beauty ever ancient, ever new.” It is through the Catholic Church that we receive the grace to practice the virtues, and it is her saints who show us the way through their close attachment to Christ. We learn that if we are to steal heaven like the Good Thief, we must take up our own crosses and follow in Christ’s footsteps. Through the Catholic Faith we learn to know, love, and serve God. Finally, we learn that to love God is the only thing we do in this world of ours without measure. In this way we wayfarers unite ourselves to God and foreshadow the way we shall possess Him in paradise.
Nash Monsour
Camp Springs, Maryland