Questo articolo è disponibile anche in: Italian English Spanish

Question

Good morning Father,

Firstly, I would like to thank you for your work that has kept me close to the faith on many occasions, and I am sure many others feel the same.

In recent times, while searching for information regarding the ancient history of Israel, I have discovered that most scholars trace Judaism back to a product of a process of evolution from polytheism, equivalent to the belief that we despise, and deny the existence of Abraham, Moses and the exodus, the monarchy etcetera, reducing the Bible and Judaism (and consequently Christianity as well) to a product far more human than divine (e.g. conferring to Yahweh the same qualities that other gods already had).

My question then is: how should we, as Christians, relate to these discoveries and interpretations? Agreeing with them will inevitably lead to atheism, that is indeed their premise. And if these interpretations are false, why do most scholars support them (even some Catholics)? Just for personal reasons? This is a big problem for those who, like me, try to find evidence for their faith in history, and will feel lost when not able to find it. We tend to cling to those times when the Lord seems to have manifested himself “visibly” in history (miracles and apparitions), which I recognize, however, could be the wrong way to approach faith. 

I wish you well and may God bless you. 

Good morning father,

I would like to further add to my first question the conclusions I arrived at after a painful (and still ongoing) reflection on the relationship between history and faith.

I have come to understand that what undermines my faith is the constant interaction, especially on the internet, with the results of so called “historical-critical” research that traces Scripture back to something very different from how we interpret it.

The problem lies in that fact that this method tries to point out the possible human origins of our faith (e.g. probable pseudo-epigraphy, “inventions,” manipulations and out-of-context interpretations in every part of the Bible etc). My mind relentlessly tries to cling to these explanations, being only “an infant”.

Therefore, more than asking for a specific answer to any of the above problems, I would perhaps ask for your suggestion on how to detach from this worldview, because I am afraid that these criticisms may suffocate my faith forever, even though He will not allow us to be tempted beyond our limit. 

Thank you again infinitely

Priest’s answer

Dearly beloved,

I first want to express my deep regret for the delay in answering you. I am sorry for it and I apologize.

1. You have highlighted in your email a topic that was hot in the early days of the last century.

Many esteemed intellectuals have abandoned the faith after reading Scripture following an historical-critical criteria. Among them were Renan and Loisy, who influenced many others as well.

2. The Holy Office’s decree “Lamentabili” (July 3, 1907) is the first doctrinal document condemning Modernism and presents a list of doctrinal errors concerning mainly the inspiration and inerrancy of Holy Scripture, the nature of Jesus Christ and the constitution of the Church.

3. The Dominican Father Marie-Joseph Lagrange, founder and director of the École Biblique in Jerusalem, was well aware of the disasters brought upon by the writings of the people mentioned just above.

He decided to launch his attack not by reiterating the same old traditionalist positions that his opponents were destroying in the name of the critical historical method.

Instead, he decided to venture into this scientifically, convinced that it was necessary to ask science to answer the questions raised by science, that it was necessary to challenge criticism with criticism, that discussion was more effective than repression.

He was also convinced that, in order to know the mentality, customs, and manner of expression of the people, down to the geographical layout of the land, it was necessary to live in the very territory – Palestine – in which the divine Revelation, codified in Holy Scripture, had been expressed.

4. Father Lagrange published a commentary on the Lamentabili decree in the Revue biblique.

In that commentary he manifested his ” full satisfaction with the way in which a difficult problem has been solved: repudiating the errors advanced in the name of criticism and history, without affecting in the least the freedom of historical criticism” (RB 16 (1907) pp. 481-488).

In one of his letters with a certain Father Condamin, a Jesuit and teacher at the Catholic Institute of Toulouse, he writes: “You see, the Syllabus, that frightened us so much, is nothing more than the detail of Loisy’s condemnation. There is not a proposition that can be said to derive from the Revue biblique or similar works, and for the most part they have already been fought by us. This is an eye-opener for many people.”

He wrote to the Master of the Dominican Order, Father Cormier, now blessed: “The publication of the decree Lamentabili was a great consolation for me. There is no condemned proposition, relating to Sacred Scripture, that the Revue Biblique has not attacked since its publication. I intend to speak about it in the Revue Biblique.”

To Salvatore Minocchi, a notable Bible scholar and proponent of the critical historical method who will unfortunately leave the priesthood, he writes saying, “I am very satisfied with the Lamentabili decree. The Holy Office has kept the theological point of view and said nothing that will hinder Catholic critical studies. There are as many as fifty propositions out of sixty-five more or less directly against Loisy.”

5. The critical historical method, which he widely used and propagated (among other things, he had also written a book entitled the historical method), did not challenge our Father Lagrange’s faith.

On the contrary, it increased it, reinvigorated it. It is common knowledge that his beatification process is underway.

How did he do it?

Fr. B. Montagnes, one of his confreres, writes: “Pupils who came to Jerusalem to listen to these lectures discovered that this scholar was also a man of prayer, who lived in the continuous and undivided comings and goings from the laboratory to the oratory.

Practicing a biblical exegesis according to a scientific requirement constituted a spiritual journey for him; he truly was an exegete in search of God” (Marie-Joseph Lagrange, p. 10).

He was convinced, like St. Thomas, that the word of God “is not just any word but a word that arouses love” (non est verbum qualecumque, sed Verbum spirans amorem” (Summa Theologica, I, 43, 5, ad 2), his study led him to an unceasing conversation with God who spoke to him through the sacred text.

This was Father Lagrange’s secret.

6. At the end of his first year as a Dominican student, a year after the end of his novitiate, he had a peculiar spiritual experience that had a deep impact.

He writes in his Souvenirs personnels (personal recollections), “On the morning of Thursday, September 28, 1882, having entered for a moment into the oratory of the novitiate, I understood with lively surprise what I had read so many times in St. Paul: that Jesus Christ truly lives in us, that grace is His grace, that it is given to us by Him, and in Him, the supreme gift.

It seemed to me that I had never heard anything like that, and I was sure it was true. I was amazed at all the applications of this fundamental principle that presented themselves to my spirit: «If Jesus Christ is present to souls, it is He who accomplishes all good in them.»

Father Master, to whom I communicated my discovery, approved it and referred me to St. Paul and St. John and – among more modern authors – to Father de Condren. (…)m

I lived for several days in this light: «Jesus Christ in prayer, Jesus Christ in my brothers, Jesus Christ everywheree»” (Saturday, October 30).

7. He did not approach the Holy Scriptures simply with the curiosity of a scholar but with affection and adoration for the One who spoke to him and who, in speaking to him, transformed, purified and sanctified him.

It was a journey made together with Christ. A journey of progressive sanctification.

Reading his The Gospel of Jesus Christ you can sense his intimate adoration of Christ. He does not simply describe the life of Jesus. It is a continuous contemplation put in writing, in which those who have the grace to read that work become participants.

I wish you too will have the inner solidity of Father Lagrange, his comings and goings between reading God’s word and prayer, his great love for Jesus Christ and for the Blessed Virgin, he in fact used to sign himself as the Blessed Virgin’s humble servant and son.

While others in his day abandoned the Church because of their studies, he instead grew stronger and stronger because of them, in the likeness of Our Lord who grew in age and grace before God and before men.

I bless you and will remember you in my prayers.

Father Angelo