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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="color:#1D1C1D;mso-ligatures:none">How can we recover the depth and power of the Bible in the twenty-first century</span></b><span style="color:#1D1C1D;mso-ligatures:none">? Bishop Barron offers 5 interpretive strategies:<br>
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1. <b>Always be critically attentive to the variety of genres on display in the Scriptures.</b><br>
The Bible is not so much a book as a library, a collection of books. Readily identifiable within the biblical corpus are legend, saga, tall tale, history, poetry, song, prophecy, biography, epistolary literature, and apocalypse, and each of these literary types
requires a particular kind of interpretive approach.<br>
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2.<b> Scripture is, in another sense, one book.</b><br>
The Bible is finally telling one great story, or perhaps better, unfolding one great drama. Each section of the whole relates harmonically to every other section and to the totality of the work.<br>
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3. <b>Find a “canon within the canon” of Scripture.</b><br>
Some of our greatest biblical masters have held that one teaching or saying within the Bible can function as the key to opening the door of the entire Bible. St. Augustine proposed Jesus’s command to love God above all things and our neighbor for the sake of
God as the ultimate criterion of correct biblical reading. That is to say, every story, poem, doctrine, or saying in the Bible should be read as ultimately designed to inculcate love of God and neighbor.<br>
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4. <b>Distinguish between what is in the Bible and what the Bible teaches.</b><br>
In the Bible we can find ideas about cosmology, medicine, disease control, and the weather that are clearly outmoded, and we can find cultural practices such as the denigration of women, the marginalization of children, slavery, etc., that are patently morally
objectionable. These things are undoubtedly in the Bible, but they are not, I would argue, what the Bible is teaching. In order to discover the true doctrine of the Scriptures, we have to attend not to particular passages taken out of context, but rather to
the overarching themes and patterns within the Bible as a whole.<br>
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5. <b>Always remember that the Bible is the Church’s book.</b><br>
The Scriptures as we know them were put in final canonical form sometime in the fourth century. This “canonization” represented the culmination of a centuries-long process—both Jewish and Christian—of analysis, debate, and judgment. The point is that the books
of the Bible were assembled by the Church and for the Church. Their purpose, ultimately, is to tell the great story of Israel, which reaches its climax in the dying and rising of the Messiah, and to draw all people into communion with Jesus Christ. The proper
framework for reading the Bible, therefore, is ecclesial and evangelical.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">Blessings and peace,</span><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">Fr Michael</span><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none"> </span><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">Reverend Michael B. Medas, MSW</span><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">Catholic Chaplain | Director of Catholic Ministry</span><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</span><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">W11-012 </span><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">40 Massachusetts Ave.</span><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">Cambridge, MA 02139</span><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">“Jesus loves you always, even when you don’t feel worthy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">When not accepted by others, even by yourself sometimes,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">He is the one who always accepts you. Only believe, you are precious to Him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">Bring all you are suffering to His feet, only open your heart to be loved by Him as you are.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Palatino;mso-ligatures:none">He will do the rest.” Saint Mother Teresa<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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