For many years, Catholics wanting to engage in serious Bible study in order to arrive at a deep understanding of the Bible didn't have many good choices. They could enroll in an official degree program at a university or seminary. Not everyone, of course, is in a position to do that. Or they could get involved in a variety of dynamic Protestant Bible Studies.
But in recent years, some great Catholic Bible teachers have appeared on the scene, men and women who have engaged in the formal, academic study of Scripture, but who also can speak the everyday language of the man or woman in the pew and make the complexities of the Biblical Text understandable in a way that relates to real life. The result has been the development of some extraordinary tools for Catholic Biblical Studies.
Jeff Cavins, Scott Hahn, Tim Staples, and Fr. Mitch Pacwa are among the most outstanding examples of learned scripture scholars who are also popular bible teachers and have created excellent Catholic Bible Studies.
The first thing that we need as we approach the Bible as Catholics is to understand that the Tradition and authority of the Catholic Church does not compete with the authority of God's word, but is its necessary buttress and support. Tim Staples, a former anti-Catholic Protestant Minister, provides a great service in his "Twisted Scripture" talk in showing how the "Sola Scriptura" principle of the Protestant Reformation is in fact unbiblical and leads to Scripture becoming a prisoner to the preconceived notions of anyone who tries to interpret it. Dr. Scott Hahn, another former Protestant minister, does a masterful job at explaining positively how the tradition and magisterium of the Church are interpretive keys that unlock the meaning of Scripture in his "Reading the Bible from the Heart of the Church."
Yet another former Protestant minister, Jeff Cavins, realized even as a Protestant pastor that many Christians do not grasp “the big picture” of the Bible. Though many know selected stories, they are unable to connect them into a continuous story of salvation history.
Jeff's answer was to identify the books of the Bible that tell the story from beginning to end. By reading just those 14 “narrative” books, a chronological story emerges into which all the characters, books, and verses of the bible fit and manifest their true and deepest meaning. For over twenty years Cavins has been honing and improving this biblical studies program which he has come to call The Great Adventure. This system is different from other Catholic Bible Studies in that it follows of a distinctive bible timeline that makes learning bible history easy. In my view, it is the best basic Bible history program, and therefore the best Catholic Bible Study, available today. For a Great Adventure OVERVIEW, CLICK HERE! For testimonials about the Great Adventure Bible Study Program, click here!
Once we understand the relationship between the bible and the Church and grasp the overall picture of salvation history, we are ready to jump into specialized study of particular books, such as "The Gospel of Mark" with Dr. Scott Hahn, or particular specialized topics, like the nature of oath and covenant in the bible ("Swear to God"), or how what the book of Revelation tells us about the Eucharistic liturgy ("The Lambs Supper"). Dr. Scott Hahn, once again, provides insightful resources on these subjects.
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