From the Vatican Information Service:
VATICAN CITY, 28 JAN 2009 (VIS) - In today's general audience, held in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope turned his attention to the theological content of St. Paul's final Letters, known as the pastoral letters because addressed to his close collaborators Timothy and Titus.
These Letters, said the Holy Father, refer to a situation in which "certain erroneous and false doctrines had arisen, such as the attempt to present marriage as something bad. This concern remains current today because Scripture is sometimes read as a historical curiosity and not as the Word of the Holy Spirit, in which we can hear the voice of the Lord Himself and perceive His presence in history".
Against such doctrines, St. Paul affirmed the need to read Sacred Scripture "as 'inspired by' and proceeding from the Holy Spirit". He also speaks of the "good 'deposit', by which he means 'the tradition of apostolic faith which must be safeguarded with the help of the Holy Spirit Who dwells within us, ... and is the criterion of faithfulness to the announcement of the Gospel".
Benedict XVI highlighted how the "sense of universality" of salvation - "God wishes all mankind to be saved and to know the truth" - is "strong and decisive" in these Pauline Letters.
The Letters also contain "a reflection upon the ministerial structure of the Church. They present for the first time the triple division of bishops, priests and deacons".
"Thus", he went on, "we have the essential elements of Catholic structure. Scripture and Tradition, Scripture and announcement form a single whole. But to this structure - so to say, a doctrinal structure - must be added a personal structure, the successors of the Apostles as witnesses of the apostolic announcement".
Speaking of the episcopate, the Pope recalled how in the Letter to Timothy, for example, the bishop "is considered as the father of the Christian community. The idea of the Church as the 'house of God' has its roots in the Old Testament and is again formulated in the Letter to the Hebrews, while in the Letter to the Ephesians we read that Christians are no longer strangers and aliens, but citizens and saints, members of the house of God".
"Let us ask the Lord and St. Paul that we too, as Christians, may always be characterised - with respect to the society in which we live - as members of the 'family of God'. We also pray that the pastors of the Church may increasingly acquire parental sentiments, tender and strong at one and the same time, for the formation of the house of God, the community, the Church".
• Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Thessalonians, Timothy, And Titus, by Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch
• Introduction to Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger's God's Word: Scripture, Tradition, Office | Peter Hünermann and Thomas Södin
• What Is Tradition? | Yves Congar, O.P. | The Introduction to
The Meaning of Tradition
• Foreword to The Meaning of Tradition | Avery Cardinal Dulles
• Tradition | Thomas Howard
• God, The Author of Scripture | Preface to God and
His Image: An Outline of Biblical Theology | Fr. Dominique Barthélemy, O.P.
• Going Deeper Into the Old Testament | An
Interview with Aidan Nichols, O.P.
• The Pattern of Revelation: A Contentious Issue |
From Lovely Like Jerusalem | Aidan Nichols, O.P.
• Origen and Allegory | Introduction to History and Spirit:
The Understanding of Scripture According to Origen | Henri de Lubac
• Motherhood of the Entire Church | Henri de Lubac, S.J.
• Approaching the Sacred Scriptures | Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch
• How To Read The Bible | Peter Kreeft
• The Bible Gap: Spanning the Distance Between Scripture and Theology
| Fr. Benedict Ashley, O.P.
• The Divine Authority of Scripture vs. the "Hermeneutic of
Suspicion" | James Hitchcock
I wonder whether these General Audience lectures will be published in book form. I'm particularly interested in his lectures on St. Paul.
Posted by: Jackson | Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Very interesting. Yes, it would be good to get these in book form. The Holy Father's description of the role of the bishops is interesting when we think of the Church in our country.
Posted by: Dan Deeny | Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 03:10 PM
The lectures on St. Paul will indeed be published in book form.
Posted by: Mark Brumley | Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 07:31 AM
It seems to me that the Holy Father correctly treats the issue of pseudonymity in connection with the Pastoral Epistles. He mentions the dispute regarding authorship, but then treats the epistles as they present themselves to be--works of St. Paul. While I do not minimize the objections that have been raised to Pauline authorship, it seems to me that these objections can be met and that we do not have good grounds for denying that Paul wrote 1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus.
Posted by: Mark Brumley | Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 07:39 AM