The Word of God Today

From the fifth to the 26th of October, representative bishops from around the world will meet in Rome for the 12th Ordinary Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, the body proposed by the Second Vatican Council for ongoing discussion of challenges facing the church. This years topic will address a yet uncompleted reform of the council: to make the Scriptures truly, "the churchs book," known, prayed and studied by the whole church.

The formal topic of the meeting is "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church." In this issue, America has asked six well-known church leaders and scholars to write about aspects of making the Bible central to Catholic life.

We hope this special issue will whet the appetite of readers for the work of the synod and encourage them to explore still other dimensions of the theme, including the Word of God in culture and history, as well as in the faith of other Christian believers.

"Nourished and Ruled by Sacred Scripture," Richard J. Sklba

"The Original Testament," Richard J. Clifford

"A Hymn With Many Voices," John R. Donahue

"Sowing the Word," Pheme Perkins

"Ever Ancient, Ever New," John B. Klassen

"From Council to Synod," Ronald D. Witherup

Drew Christiansen, S.J., previews the synod on our weekly podcast.

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9 years ago

Here's a radical suggestion for the Church in their quest for increasing Catholics' familiarity with Sacred Scripture: try putting the missals with the liturgy of the word back in the pews! The last two parishes which I've belonged to both eliminated missals. The first relented after feedback from the parishioners and began supplying them again. Both parishes have no problem supplying very substantial and plentiful music hymnals in all of the pews.

This article also appeared in print, under the headline "The Word of God Today," in the September 29, 2008 issue.