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Title: Biblical Fundamentalism: What Every Catholic Should Know by Ronald D. Witherup S.S. ISBN: 0-8146-2722-6 Publisher: Liturgical Press Pub. Date: October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $8.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.2 (5 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A good start: Here, private communication from author
Comment: I read the other reviews and I succeeded in one email exchange with the author.
The author's goal was an introduction, a brief but concise comparison of fundamentalist and Catholic views on the Bible. He has succeeded in making the basic distinction. I think and told him that he doesn't offer alternative interpretations to the texts of Scripture where the greatest differences exist with fundamentalists.
Catholic biblical scholarship indeed comes across as a type of modernism, disrespecting centuries of Catholic Church teaching and precedent.
He satisfies himself to paint a fairly accurate picture of the fundamentalists' view of scripture and then offers a thumbnail sketch of the Catholic view, without many specifics. By email, he referred me to the (mostly Catholic) bibliography of his book for further information.
I take exception to one of his more controversial assertions, That fundamentalists tend to canonize social relationships in the bible that in fact were simply accidents of their historical context. In other words, the subservient position of women in the bible is not a precept of the bible, but just a reflection of the times of the writer. This idea is clearly stated as a difference of Catholics and Fundamentalists, but it is poorly motivated.
By private communication he says: "The Bible does not contain fiction (as we moderns would define it) as such, but not everything in the Bible is history either. Your examples of Jonah or Ruth or Esther are narrative stories with various moral and/or heroic themes in them, and Genesis 1-11 is myth (not fiction) with an important theological perspective to it. "Myth" here does not mean an untrue story but a narrative with a profoundly true message, couched in ordinary story language. Fundamentalists, too, can recognize that some stories are not meant to be literally true (they are not all literalists), depending on the literary genre of the story, though they tend to read Gen 1-11 as historically and scientifically true, in contrast to non-fundamentalist approaches."
Rating: 1
Summary: A very shallow book
Comment: Coming from a conservative evangelical Protestant viewpoint, I was really curious to see what a Catholic priest and seminary professor might say about fundamentalism. Unfortunately, I have to report not only that Witherup had nothing intelligent to say, he wasn't even intelligible.
Indeed, to criticize something you haven't even taken the time to TRY to understand takes something truly special. And Witherup's ignorance and arrogance are truly special. After 86 pages, I know what Witherup thinks about lots of things, but I can't tell if he's ever read a single book by a fundamentalist. Apart from a passing reference to a fifteen-year-old title by Jerry Falwell, Witherup doesn't interact with -- or even show any awareness of -- even one of the many conservative fundamentalist or evangelical biblical scholars.
Men like Don Carson, Greg Beale, Doug Moo, Gordon Hugenberger, Moises Silva, John Walton, Walter Elwell, Bruce Waltke, Walt Kaiser, Leon Morris, Gleason Archer, Scott Hafemann etc. may all uphold the highest and strictest views on biblical inspiration and inerrancy (not unlike Pope Leo XIII & Pius XII), but they also have doctorates from Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge, Tubingen, Yale, Princeton etc. And unlike Witherup's shallow and superficial output of 6 "pop" articles, these scholars have published serious commentaries and scholarly monographs.
Sadly, the fact that Donald Senior would recommend this book may suggest that Witherup's combination of arrogance and ignorance may not be so rare, after all, at least within that narrow clerical clique of aging Catholic biblical dissidents. To imagine that the Sulpicians have sunk to this level -- Raymond Brown must be rolling over in his grave.
Rating: 1
Summary: Superficial and dishonest analysis
Comment: As a Catholic theologian and ordained clergyman, I am embarrassed by this sort of superficial analysis. This is not a sincere attempt at establishing a serious dialogue, but a cheap caricature. Moreover, the author's own views are presented as though they reflect Catholic tradition. Instead, they reflect Catholic modernism, thinly veiled. I accept historical criticism and the legitimate gains made by modern scholars, but the view of Scripture in this book is much closer to liberal protestantism than to the Church's official teaching. Fundamentalism serves as a convenient surrogate for attacking the Church's own high view of inspiration and inerrancy. What a shame. And a sham.
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Title: The Church According to the New Testament: What the Wisdom and Witness of Early Christianity Teach Us Today by Daniel J. Harrington ISBN: 1580511112 Publisher: Sheed and Ward Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Creating Communion: The Theology of the Constitutions of the Church by John J. Markey, Thomas F. O'Meara ISBN: 1565481798 Publisher: New City Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The New Catholicity: Theology Between the Global and the Local (Faith and Cultures Series) by Robert J. Schreiter ISBN: 157075120X Publisher: Orbis Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: Consider Jesus: Waves of Renewal in Christology by Elizabeth A. Johnson ISBN: 0824511611 Publisher: Herder & Herder Pub. Date: 01 March, 1992 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Salt, Leaven, and Light: The Community Called Church by T. Howland Sanks ISBN: 0824516664 Publisher: Herder & Herder Pub. Date: 01 May, 1997 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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