Customer Reviews

Letter & Spirit, Vol. 1: Word, Worship, and the Mysteries (Letter & Spirit: A Journal of Catholic Biblical Theology)

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If you are looking to dive deeper into the Scriptures and mine their wealth - especially within a Catholic worldview - through a resource that you know will remain faithful to the Magisterium while employing historical-critical methods properly, you should grab this journal. I did, and it was so good that I found it difficult to put it down. Personally, this journal is a significant portion of how I continue my own Biblical studies after having earned an M.A. in Theology. No classes - no heavy tuition at a private university - no papers to write - just me, a cup of coffee, and this journal.

The fresh articles and classic reprints Letter & Spirit provides are hand-picked by the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology (founded by Dr. Scott Hahn) from what's available out there so that not only the astute scholar, but even the lay faithful who want "more" do not have to go searching. Also, for those who have read Dr. Scott Hahn's work and who want to read his source material, to go backstage so to speak, Letter and Spirit is a great avenue for that line of discovery.

This first inaugural volume gives a lot of bang for your buck. My favorite article is undoubtedly "The 'Ransom for Many,' the New Exodus, and the End of Exile: Redemption as the Restoration of All Israel (Mark 10:35-45)," which is authored by Dr. Brant Pitre. Pitre is great at placing Biblical texts in their rightful context, which is a Hebrew paradigm. He shows how Biblical concepts are not so much disparate ideas as they are different sides of the same coin. In this article, Pitre does this with the 2 concepts of "redemption" or "ransom" and that of "restoration from exile." By reading the New Testament in the light of the Old, he shows that when Jesus ransoms Israel, this is inseparable from the regathering of the 12 separated, exiled tribes into the one kingdom of the Church. Israel's redemption is its being "released from exile." This places Jesus' redemptive work right in line with Salvation History. The apostles' ministry is to effect what the Paschal Mystery made effective: redemption and restoration.

This journal includes the added bonus of a section titled: "Tradition and Traditions," and in this issue, you will find in this section an extremely important commentary with regard to Scripture's inerrancy. Augustin Cardinal Bea comments upon article 11 of Dei Verbum, which is Vatican II's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (one of the 16 documents of the Second Vatican Council). Cardinal Bea's insights are relevant because he was present throughout Dei Verbum's drafting, revision, and promulgation. Since Vatican II, a number of "Catholic" Biblical scholars have pointed to article 11 of Dei Verbum in order to defend their stance that the Catholic Church supposedly changed its understanding of Scripture's inerrancy to limit this inerrancy only to those pericopes of Scripture that are "salvific" or "pertain to our salvation." The rest is up for grabs.

The disputed clause is as follows: "the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation." (DV 11.2)

Cardinal Bea provides the insights necessary to understand that in no way were the Council Fathers using "for the sake of salvation" as an exclusionary clause, but rather, they were including this clause as a purpose clause, to show why God went to the trouble of preserving the sacred author from error. He did so "for the sake of our salvation."

Above, I have introduced only two of the eleven pieces the first volume includes (not to mention the book reviews in the back). I personally think this journal should be required reading by our seminaries that are currently training our future priests and highly recommended for priests who wish to renew their own studies, which should feed into their pastoral preaching. I am so glad that it is available on Amazon for just anyone to purchase, including myself. What I would easily call the best of Biblical scholarship has now been made accessible for public consumption by the Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology. If you enjoy studying the Bible, then don't hesitate in getting this annual journal in your personal library as soon as possible.

This book, along with each of the other three volumes of "Letter and Spirit", is a great compendium of writings and commentaries from noted Catholic writers and theologians. Each book contains works on a given treatment of biblical theology centering on the particular volume's theme. The four volume set is perfect for the serious student or teacher seeking an orthodox Catholic treatment of sacred scripture. Unlike many contemporary texts, this series does not treat scripture in a vacuum, as somehow seperate from the full dynamic of Christian faith. Rather, it views it first through the lens of the Church, as an integral part of the full economy of salvation. I started with one volume, but soon ordered all four - recommend getting the entire set using super saver shipping.

One caveat - The material in this series is presented at a depth which will hold the interest of a student of theology, but for the casual reader I recommend first reading Dr. Scott Hahn's single volume published with the same title.