The Second Vatican
Council gave the Bible a central place in the life of the church, a
Scripture scholar said during a symposium at The Catholic University of
America.
In a talk on the council's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine
Revelation, Hellen Mardaga said Vatican II not only opened the door for
scholars to study the Bible using the modern methods of historical
criticism, but also enabled them to publish their findings and make them
accessible to the Catholic public.
Mardaga, an assistant professor of
New Testament at Catholic University, said the constitution, known also
as "Dei Verbum," invited the faithful to nourish their faith from the
Scriptures, a sharp break from the 16th-century Council of Trent, which
taught that interpreting the Bible was a task reserved for bishops.
Her
Sept. 27 talk was part of university's symposium "Reform and Renewal:
Vatican II After 50 Years."
Mardaga contrasted Vatican II's teaching on
revelation, including the Bible, with that of the First Vatican Council,
held in 1869-70, and two papal encyclicals. Vatican II emphasized, she
said, the church's doctrines are not themselves divine revelation but
rather, Christ himself is the sum total of revelation.
The council's
understanding of revelation is relational, she said. "It has to do with
the relationship between the Father and the Son. It is in that
interpersonal relationship that we Christians participate."
Vatican I
taught that faith is submission of one's intellect and will to God,
Mardaga said, but for Vatican II, faith is a gift of oneself to God.