Scribd
Upload
120 views

Dei Verbum: The Dogmatic Constitution On Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, The Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution On Divine Revelation, Was

The document Dei Verbum, issued by the Second Vatican Council, sought to establish the Catholic understanding of divine revelation in response to historical biblical criticism. It affirmed that God communicates revelation through both Scripture and Tradition. It allowed for historical analysis of Scripture but maintained the authority of the Church's teaching. The document represented a major shift initiated by Pope John XXIII that gave bishops more influence over Church documents and allowed for new biblical scholarship while still upholding revelation and tradition.

Uploaded by

Adrian Peñafiel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
120 views

Dei Verbum: The Dogmatic Constitution On Divine Revelation Dei Verbum, The Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution On Divine Revelation, Was

The document Dei Verbum, issued by the Second Vatican Council, sought to establish the Catholic understanding of divine revelation in response to historical biblical criticism. It affirmed that God communicates revelation through both Scripture and Tradition. It allowed for historical analysis of Scripture but maintained the authority of the Church's teaching. The document represented a major shift initiated by Pope John XXIII that gave bishops more influence over Church documents and allowed for new biblical scholarship while still upholding revelation and tradition.

Uploaded by

Adrian Peñafiel
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Dei Verbum: The Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation

Dei verbum, the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, was
promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 18 November 1965, following approval by the assembled bishops
by a vote of 2,344 to 6. It is one of the principal documents of the Second Vatican Council, indeed
their very foundation in the view of one of the leading Council Fathers. The phrase "Dei verbum" is
Latin for "Word of God"

1. Historical Context
The document Dei Verbum (Word of God) is one of only two dogmatic constitutions issued by the
Second Vatican Council, the other being Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.
As such Dei Verbum (henceforth DV) is one of the most authoritative and important documents of
the Council. Its purpose is to spell out the Church’s understanding of the nature of revelation, that
is, the process whereby God communicates with human beings. As such it touches on questions
about Scripture, tradition and the teaching authority of the Church.

The remote context of this document is the emergence of historical consciousness in the 18th and
19th centuries and the impact that this had on the understanding of the Scriptures. Historians
began to adopt new more historical ways of reading the Bible, and this had flow-on effects into the
whole understanding of both the Bible and Church tradition. At the end of the 19th century a
movement arose, called Modernism, which sought to accommodate the Church to some of these
new understandings.

While this movement went too far in seeking to relativise tradition and Church authority and was
thus condemned by the Church, the impact of historical consciousness itself could not be
suppressed. In his ground-breaking encyclical Divino Afflante Spiritu (1943), Pius XII gave
permission to Catholic scripture scholars to adopt new ways of reading the scriptures which were
more congruent with these new historical methods. Nonetheless there remained general suspicion
about these methods, and those scholars which adopted them continued to suffer from accusations
and recriminations.

The work of the Second Vatican Council brought new developments. With the calling of the Council
it was clear that any document on the topic of revelation would be the place where this battle
would be fought out. As was the accepted process a preparatory commission, under the direction
of Cardinal Ottaviani, put together a draft document which was meant to form the starting point for
the discussions of the Council.

This first draft was largely shaped by debates going back to the Reformation, and spoke of two
sources of revelation, Scripture and Tradition. Further it continued to treat the Bible in an
unhistorical manner, not in the manner congruent with historically conscious approaches. Finally it
contained various condemnations and warnings which were not in line with the more pastoral
approach desired by Pope John XXIII.

Although this draft was opposed by the majority of the bishops, the vote did not achieve the two
thirds majority needed to reject it altogether. At this point Pope John personally intervened and
had the document withdrawn and completely redrafted. This action of Pope John represented a
major shift in the processes of the Council. It lessened the power of the preparatory commissions
which were dominated by theologians who were unfamiliar with and suspicious of the type of
historical methodologies which were being introduced into the study of theology. It gave the
bishops more room to move in relation to other preparatory documents which reflected similar
limitations.

In its final form, promulgated by Pope Paul VI on 18 November 1965, Dei Verbum continues the
trajectory initiated by Divino Afflante Spiritu, allowing Catholic scripture scholars to read the Bible
as arising within particular social and cultural contexts. It places this insight, however, within a
larger framework of divine revelation and the role of the Church’s teaching authority. As such it
needs to be read in the context of Lumen Gentium (LG), the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church,
particularly those parts on the teaching authority of the Church.

2. Overview of the document


The document has six major chapters:
1. Divine Revelation Itself
2. The Transmission of Divine Revelation
3. Sacred Scripture: Its Divine Inspiration and Its Interpretation
4. The Old Testament
5. The New Testament
6. Sacred Scripture in the Life of the Church

The major concern of the document is to proclaim a Catholic understanding of the Bible as the
“word of God”. This understanding is placed within the larger context of the Church’s
understanding of revelation itself. Here the document speaks not of revelation about God, but the
revelation of God – “It pleased God in his goodness and wisdom to reveal himself and to make
known the mystery of his will.”

Theologians will pick up this theme and speak of revelation as “divine self-communication”, that is,
God communicates his very self to us, making us “sharers in the divine nature”. The document
places revelation in the context of God’s saving will operating in history, or “salvation history”.
Both the inner Word of God, incarnate in Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit play a role in revelation,
which thus has a Trinitarian structure. These are all significant theological advances on previous
Church documents.

The second chapter deals with the relationship between Scripture and Tradition in the context of
the transmission of revelation within the Church. The role of the apostles and their successors the
bishops is highlighted. Most significant here is the close relationship that the document identifies
between Scripture and Tradition. Rather than positing two sources of revelation, as had earlier
been the case, it speaks of one “divine wellspring” making up a single “deposit of faith” entrusted
to the Church. The authentic interpretation of the word of God is entrusted to the teaching office of
the Church, which is not “above the word of God, but serves it”

You might also like