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Forty years is a long time in a person's life, but not necessarily in the life of the church. Consider, for example, that it took well over a century for the reforms of the Council of Trent to take hold. We could also note that after God gave the commandments on Mount Sinai, it took the Israelites more than forty years before they were ready to enter the Holy Land. And it took far longer yet before they could establish themselves in practice of the Law! Clearly, all work of change requires time before it can be understood, accepted, and integrated into everyday life.
Yet in the forty years since the closing of the Second Vatican Council, much has changed already. Many of these changes can be traced to the Council’s documents on the church, on the liturgy, and on the Scriptures. Since this month marks the fortieth anniversary of the document on Scripture, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, we wanted to take a closer look at what the Council Fathers wrote so that we can get a sense of how profoundly this document—as well as the whole Council—has shaped our approach to the Bible.
Precedents and Preconceptions. Looking back over the past forty years, we can see numerous signs of renewed interest in and love for Scripture. Scholarly study of the Bible is flourishing. It is quite common for lay people to be part of Bible study groups. Numerous kinds of…
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