Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!jarthur!usc!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: sc1u+@andrew.cmu.edu (Stephen Chan) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Bible the word of God? Message-ID: Date: 21 Nov 90 06:00:52 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 25 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu >Excerpts from netnews.soc.religion.christian: 19-Nov-90 Re: Bible the word of God? Richard A. O'Keefe@goann (6032) > > >What _is_ the teaching of the Catholic Church on the authority of the > >Bible? I know that they regard the Church as essential to interpret > >the Bible, but _do_ they in fact regard some of it as _not_ inspired or > >_not_ having authority (when interpreted by the authentic church)? The official position of the Catholic Church is that the Bible *is* inspired. Originally there were many, many more books associated with Christianity - but during the first few centuries AD, the Church culled out the ones which were either: a) loony b) non-essential c) uninspired Therefore, as a text, the Bible (the whole Catholic Bible) is complete, inspired and authoritative. However, the Catholic Church believes that the Bible must be interpretted within the context of sacred tradition as a whole. The protestant cry of "Sola Scriptura!" strips the Bible of it's relevant and necessary context - thus opening the door to too much divergence in interpretation. (no flames from protestants please, someone asked for the Catholic position)