New Collegeville Bible Commentary: Old Testament, Volume 1 by Gregory W. Dawes

Author:Gregory W. Dawes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Published: 2015-05-03T16:00:00+00:00

(a) The regula fidei (rule of faith)

The modern biblical interpreter is inclined to judge the correctness of an interpretation by the method through which it is achieved. In other words, the rules of interpretation are methodological: if one observes certain safeguards in dealing with the text, then one can be confident about one’s result. The church fathers and medieval scholars, on the other hand, enjoyed a great freedom when it came to methods of interpretation. Even these were not entirely arbitrary—there were rules of interpretation that the fathers followed—but at the end of the day an interpretation was judged acceptable primarily on the basis of its content. St. Augustine, for instance, can accept the possibility of many legitimate interpretations, but only if they are all “in harmony with our faith.” Similarly, he will dismiss an interpretation that he regards as unacceptable with the simple judgment: “This is against our Catholic faith.”

This body of belief against which interpretations were measured was often described as the rule of faith (regula fidei), a phrase that first seems to have been used by Christian writers of the second century. St. Augustine suggests that the content of this rule of faith can be derived from the clearer passages of Scripture and from the teachings of the church. It follows that those writers who employ the rule of faith as a mark of correct biblical interpretation are merely reflecting the second assumption named above. They are affirming a unity between what is taught by the Bible and what is taught by the church.

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