Don't take it from me: take it from an expert. Check out Mark Shea's recent Catholic Exchange articles on Scripture:
- Hearing Scripture on Its Own Terms
- Three Guidelines for Reading Scripture
- The Literal Sense of Scripture
- The Allegorical Sense of Scripture
And in case you're curious what the official position of the Catholic Church is on Scripture, nothing like an official Church document to do the talking, like the encyclical Dei Verbum (1965), by the late Pope John Paul the Great.
And in case someone neglected to tell you in all your years in a Catholic school or during RCIA, let me point this out from Dei Verbum:
| The sacred synod also earnestly and especially urges all the Christian faithful, especially Religious, to learn by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures the "excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 3:8). "For ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ."(5) Therefore, they should gladly put themselves in touch with the sacred text itself, whether it be through the liturgy, rich in the divine word, or through devotional reading, or through instructions suitable for the purpose and other aids which, in our time, with approval and active support of the shepherds of the Church, are commendably spread everywhere. And let them remember that prayer should accompany the reading of Sacred Scripture, so that God and man may talk together; for "we speak to Him when we pray; we hear Him when we read the divine saying." (6) |
So what are you waiting for? Tolle et lege!
References:
5. St. Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah, Prol.: PL 24,17. cf. Benedict XV, encyclical "Spiritus Paraclitus:" EB 475-480; Pius XII, encyclical "Divino Afflante Spiritu:" EB 544.
6. St. Ambrose, On the Duties of Ministers I, 20,88: PL l6,50.
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