The Moral Sense

Continuing his series on the Senses of Scripture as outlined in the Vatican II document Dei Verbum & the Catechism (109-119), Mark Shea investigates the Moral Sense. The Church teaches that we be attentive to the Literal & Spiritual senses of Scripture, with the latter subdivided into Allegorical, Moral, & Anagogical senses.

He does a nice job of tying the whole subject to common current day objections that there is no moral authority outside of the individual, & certainly not within that collection of perhaps edifying, but nonetheless fictional stories called the Bible.

There's a lot to consider about this, as in American, the conscience is routinely considered the supreme authority - even in matters of faith - over either Church teaching or decisions. But all that will have to wait for later. For now, just ponder the article (see here).

The Literal Meaning

You can't possibly know what something means if you're not even sure what it says.

So, thanks to Mark Shea over at Catholic Exchange for saving me the trouble of writing an article on this particular aspect of studying the Sacred Scriptures according the methodology outlined in the Catechism:

110 In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time & culture, the literary genres in use at that time, & the modes of feeling, speaking, & narrating then current. "For the fact is that truth is differently presented & expressed in the various types of historical writing, in prophetical & poetical texts, & in other forms of literary expression."

116 The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture & discovered by exegesis, following the rules of sound interpretation: "All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal."

Good stuff. Can't wait to see the rest.