The Bible, the Church, and Authority

At the Sunday class from February 6 until Lent begins in March, Fr Austin will give short talks on The Bible, the Church, and Authority. These talks will be on questions concerning the Bible such as: What books are in it? What is the history of its acceptance as a “canon”? What is its relationship to the church? What makes it authoritative?

There is a remarkably clear short book by Professor Joseph Lienhard of Fordham of that title which participants might want to read in parallel to the class, but Fr Austin will not be expecting that anyone has read that book. 

The topic for February 27: Fr Austin will look at how the early church worked to discern how best to interpret the Bible. He will have a few general comments on interpretation of texts in antiquity, but mostly he’ll look at Irenaeus of the late 2nd century and Origen of a couple of generations later. The basic problem is posed by the Christian conviction that the Old Testament (all of it) is Scripture, and is to be interpreted through Christ. By the end of the 2nd century, when there is a ‚Äúvolume 2‚Äù (New Testament) in place, the problem is thereby complexified. Origen famously used the method of allegorization to solve the problem. But that, in turn, raises its own issues. Come join us . . . it is a very interesting study, and we’ll find a chair for you on the 5th floor.

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