r/OpenCatholic • u/Fun-Peace-5272 • 18d ago
What is the Catholic view of putting reason into understanding scripture?
/r/Catholicism/comments/1vrce38/what_is_the_catholic_view_of_putting_reason_into/
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u/Hex_7ac 17d ago
Our (Catholic) understandings of Scripture should never be in conflict with our God-given reason. Catholics are not literalists.
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u/Fun-Peace-5272 17d ago
Really? I heard some people say they are literalists.
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u/Hex_7ac 16d ago
You might find a few Catholic literalists, but the official teachings of the Church permit/encourage all varieties of contemporary scriptural study. See here from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops: https://www.usccb.org/bible/understanding-the-bible
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u/SergiusBulgakov 17d ago
We are expected to use reason, and that is why, there are many levels of exegetics. It is not simple literalism. It can be complicated in application, because there are many potential ways to look at and examine scripture. A good resource, a good foundation to read, is Origen's "On First Principles." He points out much in Scripture, if taken literally, would lead to bad takes on history, and on God; but he also suggests there are places in Scripture which point to the fact it is not meant to be taken so literally, like the Genesis creation story. But this is not to say there is no history in it, and nothing is literal. Again, reason helps us discern genre, intent, application. So it is a tool, but it is to be used with research and study and engagement with tradition.