Ok, so the Pope finally released his document on the Bible,Verbum Domini. It was posted on the Vatican website on Thursday, November 11. So…you may have thought I was asleep at the wheel since I have been watching for this. But…I’ve been doing a lot like eating turkey and going to the SBL conference. More on that in a bit.
Anyway, I plan to go through the document here on the blog and comment on different sections. For now, here are my initial thoughts: The document is very long–much longer than is typical for this kind of document. There is nothing in the document that is surprising or ground-breaking. It is pretty much a faithful elaboration on the Synod’s earlier documents, especially the Propositions. It is a restatement of many important Catholic positions on the Bible and all things biblical. It also deals with how the Bible ought to function in the life of the Church in all its aspects. I think it will be a valuable touchstone in the years to come, but not a sea-change document. I’ll post more thoughts as they come to me.
Ah…and about that Society of Biblical Literature conference. I went to the Annual Meeting in Atlanta. At the meeting, I attended a session on “biblioblogging,” with presentations by some of the major academic Bible bloggers. It was very interesting and inspiring. It made me feel that I am not alone in the world of blogging about the Bible and re-invigorated me for this blog. Most of the presenters posted their papers on their blogs before delivering them at the meeting. I felt a little weird–yet kind of cool–sitting there reading Jim Davila’s paper on my Android while he spoke. It was also nice to be able to put a face with a name for a lot of Bible bloggers out there.
Here’s what the session looked like:
Theme: The Past, Present, and Future of Blogging and Online Publication
- Robert R. Cargill, University of California-Los Angeles, Presiding
- James Davila, University of St. Andrews-Scotland
- Christian Brady, Pennsylvania State University University Park
- Michael Barber, John Paul the Great Catholic University
- James McGrath, Butler University
- Robert R. Cargill, University of California-Los Angeles
The room was packed–far beyond what I anticipated. Unfortunately, there were very few women. It was a great collection of Bible scholars and computers nerds all together in one place. I would encourage you to read some of the papers that were presented, which I have linked to above. Or perhaps you’ll find some other interesting posts at their authors’ blogs.
Thanks for posting the biblioblog papers, Mark. This’ll come in handy.
AGreed with your take on Verbum Domini. It’s somewhat encylopedic. My advice to people is not to try to read through, which is a bit boring. But rather, to go to the Table of Contents at the back (actually titled Index). It is quite detailed and enables a person to read what the doc says on the topics that interest most.
The content is quite rich. Best absorbed in smaller doses.
Shalom!