Abstract
Matthew J. Ramage, Dark Passages of the Bible: Engaging Scripture with Benedict XVI and Thomas Aquinas, Catholic University of America Press: Washington, D.C., 2013; 312 pp.: 9780813221564, £26.76/$39.95 (pbk)
This is a book aimed mostly at faithful Catholics concerned about the use and authority of the Bible in Christian teaching: not only those morally disturbing passages where the violent or vindictive behaviour of God or other biblical characters challenges a simplistic faith centred on love, but other texts which appear to contradict later Church teaching. The key, for Ramage, is to follow Pope Benedict XVI (and ironically Calvin) in recognizing the progressive nature of divine disclosure: every part of the Bible contains revealed truth, but often in an embryonic form which needs to be drawn out in the prayerful reflection of the Church. Thomas Aquinas provides an example of this approach as he builds on the established hermeneutical strategies of Late Antiquity and the early medieval Church to draw out the fuller spiritual meaning latent beneath the surface of the biblical text using the tools of philosophical reason applied with characteristic rigour.
Pope Benedict advocates a similar critical approach, updated to reflect the changing perceptions of modern scholarship. What is needed, he argues, is a new Method ‘C’ which combines the spiritual wisdom of pre-modern exegesis (‘Method A’) with the accuracy and precision of the historical-critical method (‘Method B’). The problem with Method A is that it is historically naïve and often wildly fanciful; the problem with Method B is that it normally just deconstructs the text and leaves it at that. What is needed in Method C is a hybrid approach combining the spiritual strength of Method A with the academic rigour of Method B. This will enable the Church to continue to explore the depths of divine truth as, led by the Spirit, each generation uncovers more of the mystery of God already disclosed in Christ.
Ramage is to be applauded for this latest attempt in contemporary hermeneutics to recover the spiritual wisdom of the pre-modern Church. He is surely correct to argue that the Church needs to recover a sense of confidence in the Bible as a foundational text, rescued from the bullying excesses of fundamentalism and reclaimed as a central resource for spiritual growth. But the three case-studies chosen to illustrate Method C – the challenge to monotheism in the Old Testament portrait of God, the problem of evil, and the question of an afterlife – do little to establish the argument for critical reflection as he desperately seeks to show that traditional Catholic teaching has always been right. Like many conservative evangelicals, Ramage already knows the proper answer long before he approaches the text, and this can generate some extraordinary intellectual gymnastics as he tries to prove the ‘inerrancy’ of scripture in all ‘essential’ matters of faith and morals. He also makes a number of claims others may find surprising: that it is possible to know an author's intention, for example, even in the case of God, who is seen as the primary author of biblical texts.
This makes for frustrating reading. Ramage is surely right about so many things, not least the need to allow the faith of the Church to guide the quest for truth. But his discussion needs more critical development, freed from dogmatic assertion and a devotion to Benedict which at times borders on the sycophantic. There are, perhaps, better alternatives for the concerned reader whom Ramage has in mind: Keith Ward's What the Bible Really Teaches (2004) for those wrestling with fundamentalism, Eric Siebert's Disturbing Divine Behavior (2009) for those challenged by the dark side of Scripture, and even a text briefly mentioned by Ramage – Kenton Spark's Sacred Word, Broken Word (2012) – for those trying to re-engage spiritually with the Bible.