Interpreting the Scripture from a Catholic Point of View
Interpreting the Scripture from a Catholic Point of View

Summary/Abstract: The unity and plurality of scripture require an interpretation of the Bible text, which should be plural rather than monolithic. The hermeneutics of the Fathers of the Church and the modern authors (including Ricoeur and Luz) emphasize the pluralism of the interpretations. For its part, the Catholic hermeneutics of the text is aware that, with the exception of some very specific cases, there is no "closed" interpretation of the Bible text, and even in these cases the reading of dogma is not exclusive. The starting point of Catholic hermeneutics is the interpretation within the framework of the Church as an interpretive community. In this context, the reader inspired by the Holy Spirit finds a wide field of reading-writing in a dialogue between text and the present. In fact, tradition is nothing other than the transmission of the divine revelation or the word conveyed through Scripture. The center of what is passed on is the Scriptures, and with them the interpretations of the Fathers of the Church, the expressions of the liturgy and the arts, and the life of the Church and her holiness. All this captures the reader and his life context, which provides for the explication and application of the biblical text.

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