1 Vatican II in its Context: Review of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Liturgy, Dei Verbum

CTC402: Vatican II in its Context

Assessment Task 1: Review of a Council document

A review of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum

In so far as it dealt with revelation, the First Vatican Council (1869-70) set out
its teaching1 against a religious and cultural background permeated by
Enlightenment rationalism, fideism and certain forms of deism. This teaching
presented revelation in terms of the communication of divine mysteries, the
doctrine of the faith and the deposit of revealed truths; these were embodied
to some extent in those inspired and inerrant works of Scripture that the
Church considered her own; they were received by the faithful by means of
what Newman would have called a ‘notional assent’.2 In his encyclical
Providentissimus Deus (1893), Pope Leo XIII cautiously recognised the value
of certain linguistic and exegetical studies that had been applied to Scripture
by mainly Protestant scholars. However this thawing of attitudes was halted
by the Church’s reaction to the Modernist crisis and pronouncements by
Popes Pius X (1903-14) and Benedict XV (1914-22) effectively silenced
Catholic thinkers such as Marie-Joseph Lagrange who were trying to promote
a more scholarly and critical reading of the Scriptures. After a couple of trying
decades for Catholic scholars a complete about-face in thinking about
revelation and scriptural study was achieved by Pius XII (1939-58) who in his
encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu (1942) inaugurated what has been called a
‘Magna Carta’ for biblical progress.3

Given Pope Pius XII’s encouraging remarks about responsible biblical

scholarship, it is perhaps surprising to learn that a draft document (‘The

1
cf the decree Dei Filius (1870)
2
cf Newman, The Grammar of Assent, Longmans (1930), Chapter IV; for a fuller discussion
see J Hick, Faith and Knowledge, Collins (1974), Ch 1: Faith as propositional belief.
3
R. Brown et al (eds.), The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990), p. 1167
3
2 Vatican II in its Context: Review of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Liturgy, Dei Verbum

Sources of Revelation’) on revelation presented to the Second Vatican

Council (1962-65) was very negative in its approach to biblical advances. The
Council Fathers themselves disliked the draft and rejected its narrow
propositional view of revelation, its ‘two source’ theory and its views on the
inerrancy of scripture. The final (fifth) draft, accepted by 2344 to 6, endorsed a
more balanced and broader view and provided a basis on which further
progress in the understanding of revelation could proceed. Dei Verbum has
six chapters including sections on revelation itself, its sources, the inspiration
and inerrancy of scripture, the Old Testament and the Gospels and Scripture
in the life of the Church.

Three distinct points can be made about revelation in Dei Verbum. First there
is a movement away from revelata (truths disclosed) to revelatio (personal
disclosure). God chooses to ‘reveal himself and to make known the mystery of
his will’.4 This self-revelation of God takes place in history ‘by deeds and
words which are intrinsically bound up with each other’.5 The appropriate
mode by which this revelation is received is not so much intellectual assent as
a faith by which ‘man freely commits his entire self to God’.6 Secondly Dei
Verbum emphasises the christocentric character of revelation. Contrasting
with the Vatican I decree Dei Filius dealing with the mystery of God in which
there is very little reference to Christ as a source of revelation, Dei Verbum
says that Jesus ‘completed and perfected Revelation’ 7 The God revealed in
Jesus is also the God who will be shown in his full glory in the Second
Coming of Christ. Dermot Lane points out that ‘this fullness of revelation in
Christ does not exclude growth and development in our appropriation of the
Christ-event … Thus the closure of revelation is in another sense its
openness for man in the life of the Christian community.’8 Lastly, contrasting
with the anti-Modernist condemnations of the appeal to experience when

4
DV, 2, p. 750
5
DV, 2, p. 751
6
DV, 5, p. 752, my emphasis.
7
DV, 4, p. 752
8
Dermot A Lane, The Experience of God: An invitation to do theology, Veritas 1981: Ch 2 p.
47
3 Vatican II in its Context: Review of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Liturgy, Dei Verbum

considering revelation, Dei Verbum affirms that it was through experience that
Israel came to know the ways of God with men. 9

Concerning the question of the sources of revelation, Dei Verbum suggests

that the dichotomy of Scripture and Tradition (the ‘two sources’ idea) is
overcome by the realisation that there is but one source of which Tradition
and Scripture are different expressions. The document states that these two
sources ‘are bound closely together’ and ‘come together in some fashion to
form one thing’.10 The Council, in fact, leaves this difficult question unsettled.
Echoing Newman11, however, it does refer to the development of doctrine:
‘Thus, as the centuries go by, the Church is always advancing towards the
plenitude of divine truth, until eventually the words of God are fulfilled in her.’12
This implies that, while the seed of doctrine is found in Scripture, it is not
sufficient on its own to teach Catholic doctrine. Echoing Möhler,13 Dei Verbum
states that ‘the Church does not draw her certainty about all revealed truths
from the holy Scriptures alone. Hence, both must be accepted and honoured
with equal feelings of devotion and reverence’.14 As a rider to this it adds that
the authentic interpretation of Scripture has been entrusted to the Church but
immediately qualifies this by saying that ‘the Magisterium is not superior to the
Word of God, but its servant.’15

On the question of the inerrancy of Scripture, there is in the text16 an implied

qualification, namely that scriptural teaching is without error to the extent that
it conforms to the salvific purposes of God.17 It is up to the Church, proceeding
a posteriori and using whatever sound critical tools are available, to determine
precisely what those purposes are.

9
Cf DV, 14 p. 759.
10
DV, 9 p. 755
11
that is, in his Development of Christian Doctrine
12
DV, 8 p. 754
13
particularly his Unity in the Church or the Principle of Catholicism
14
DV, 9 p. 755
15
DV, 10 p. 756
16
DV, 11 p. 757 ‘Since … all that the inspired authors … affirm should be regarded as
affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture, firmly, faithfully
and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to see
confided to the sacred Scriptures.’
17
See The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, op cit. p 1169.
4 Vatican II in its Context: Review of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Liturgy, Dei Verbum

A. Hastings has remarked that the two short chapters on the two Testaments
are ‘most valuable for what they do not say’18, avoiding as they do the
censures and warnings that some at the Council were seeking.

Dei Verbum concludes by drawing parallels between Scripture and the

Eucharist: both are offered from one table as sustenance to the faithful.19 It
urges the faithful to read the Bible, quoting St Jerome’s dictum that “Ignorance
of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ”.20 Finally, comparing Dei Verbum with
Dei Filius, Paul McPartlan observes that, as against Dei Filius’ rationalist and
metaphysical anthropology, the understanding of man implied in Dei Verbum
is personalist and not exclusively cerebral.21

The Council stated that the mission of the Church is above all to “reveal the
mystery of God, who is the ultimate goal of man.”22 Dei Verbum contributes to
this mission by inviting Catholics to see revelation as a relational encounter
involving the whole person.

1027 words

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Austin Flannery OP (Ed), Vatican Council II: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar
Documents, Costello (1975)
R Brown et al (Eds), The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, (1990)
A Hastings, Modern Catholicism, (1991)
A. Lane, Christian Thought, Lion (1984)
D A Lane, The Experience of God, Veritas (1981)

18
A. Hastings, Modern Catholicism, (1991) p. 76
19
DV, 21 p. 762
20
see Jerome, Comm. in Isaias, Prol.: PL 24, 17.
21
See Paul McPartlan notes Revelation: Vatican I to Vatican II with reference to DV, 25 p. 764
22
Gaudium et Spes, 41.
22
5 Vatican II in its Context: Review of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Liturgy, Dei Verbum