Catholic Perception of Bible is Outdated

In much of modern Catholic Biblical scholarship, for instance, theology especially the moral field is hardly involved while in a lot of contemporary Catholic theology even moral theology, references of Bible as sacred scripture are rarely used. Where Bible texts appear in Catholic theology, it is only in selected cases and the texts are lifted mostly from works of historical-critical Bible scholars for proof-texting and confirmation of the specific theological approach to ethics being advanced at the time (Morrow 1). Before Vatican II council of 1962–1965 moral theology study involved self-identified moralists or priests who trained seminarians for the later to hear confessions and also preach on morality etc. Moralists also took part in religious, political and general meetings and inputs from them hugely impacted the laity, public policies, bishops’ agendas and decisions of Catholic institutions.

Thus, Confession manuals became handbooks of authority in judging on cases of sins which were confessed. But, the approach by moral theologians continued to contravene suggestions of Vatican II. The period from the 17th century onwards, also witnessed what is called modern Biblical criticism. This phenomenon was embedded in Catholic Biblical scholarships and was spearheaded by founding fathers like Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, Richard Simon and John Locke etc. However, modern biblical criticism was used to support certain political governments against Catholic Church governance and reign of the pope. It spanned in many parts of Europe and in a place like France it attempted to set Catholic traditions against Protestants while in Prussia it sought to disconnect from Catholic and Jewish past.

The scarce reference to Bible by Catholics renders the holy book as outdated in Catholicism which is likely to influence religious education classes in primary schools. The section on Christian religious education may be reduced to archeology in studying Bible evolution with selected scriptural texts being used to confirm ideals teachers are advancing. Hence, pupils will receive biased information, lacking adequate Bible scriptures. The skewed content with more moral theology would weaken the importance of Bible in Christian religious education while elevating other religions like Islam, Hinduism, Traditional beliefs etc, thus pupils would also view Bible as outdated compared to books of other religions like Quran. This might also resort to conflict putting pupils, teachers, policymakers and parents of Catholic and other faiths against Protestants and Evangelicals.