This article has been online for a little while, but it seemed right in light of Pope Benedict’s recent visit to the United Kingdom to post a link to it here for readers who have not seen it. In this article in the Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Fr. Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J.reflects on “Pope Benedict XVI: Theologian of the Bible.” Fr. Lienhard was being honored with the first “Pastores Dabo Vobis Award in Honor of Fr. Kenneth Baker, S.J.”  This article is taken from the 15th Annual Peter Richard Kenrick Lecture, which Fr. Lienhard gave at Kenrick-Glennon Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, on March 18, 2010, according to the article itself.

In this article Fr. Lienhard examines Pope Benedict’s biblical theology, ending with ten key points that emerge from his writings on the Bible and biblical interpretation over the course of his life as Joseph Ratzinger and Pope benedict XVI. There are a few points that Fr. Lienhard draws from the Pope’s writing which I think are fascinating and worthy of further exploration here in this blog; I hope that we can get to some of these points in the coming weeks and months. Here are three key points for me that Fr. Lienhard has outlined, with his original numbering:

“5. Besides being seen in their historical setting and interpreted in their historical contexts, the texts of Scripture must be seen from the perspective of the movement of history as a whole and of Christ as the central event.

7. The exegetical question cannot be solved by simply retreating into the Middle Ages or the Fathers, nor can it renounce the insights of the great believers of all ages, as if the history of thought began seriously only with Kant (cf. God’s Word, 114 and 125).

8. Dei Verbum envisioned a synthesis of historical method and theological hermeneutics, but did not elaborate it. The theological part of its statements needs to be attended to (cf. God’s Word, 98-99).”

There is much more than this in the article and in Pope Benedict’s biblical theology, of course, so I would encourage you all to take a look at the whole article and the Pope’s writing itself on the Bible. As I said, I hope to return to these themes, and others you might suggest, in the future.

John W. Martens

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.