The Role of Scripture and Tradition In Catholic Theology | Prof. Lewis Ayres

The Thomistic Institute

Christianity, Society & Culture, Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Catholic, Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Thomism, Catholicism

4.8 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2020

⏱️ 56 minutes

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Summary

This lecture was given at Trinity College Dublin on 13 February 2020.

Professor Lewis Ayres is a professor of Catholic and Historical Theology at Durham University. His core research has focused on Trinitarian theology in Augustine and in the Greek writers of the fourth century. His current research concentrates on the development of early Christian cultures of interpretation between 100 and 250. He is currently working on a book titled As it is Written: Ancient Literary Criticism and the Rise of Scripture AD 100-250 (Princeton University Press). Professor Ayres has also edited and co-edited numerous books including the The Cambridge History of Christian Literature (with Andrew Louth and Frances Young) and The Oxford Handbook of Catholic Theology (with Medi Ann Volpe). In addition to his research, writing, and editing projects, Professor Ayres has an interest in a number of in topics in modern Catholic fundamental and dogmatic theology. These include the modern reception of Patristic Trinitarian theology, the place of Scripture (and Tradition) in modern Catholic theology, and the modern use of post-idealist themes in the supposed “revivals” of Trinitarian theology that have occurred over the last two centuries. From 2009-2012, Professor Ayres was the inaugural holder of the Bede Chair fo Catholic Theology. From 2013-2015 he also served as Distinguished Fellow of Norte Dame’s Institute for Advanced Study. Professor Ayres is also a Visiting Professional Fellow at the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry of the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. He has taught at Trinity College Dublin and Emory University in the United States.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you knew nothing about the history of Catholic theology since the late 19th century
0:05.0	and wanted a way into understanding its controversies and turmoil,
0:10.0	there are few better places to begin than Catholic battles concerning scripture and tradition,
0:16.0	their nature and relationship.
0:19.0	While this is true, it also means means there is an awful lot to discuss.
0:23.6	All I can do this evening is to open the door a crack, enough for you to get just a sense of how much there might be to explore.
0:32.6	Nevertheless, and this is important for my talk, this is also a wonderful and opportune time at which to examine this particular topic.
0:42.3	Particularly on the question of Scripture, we are, I hope, at a real turning point in Catholic reflection,
0:49.3	a point at which modernity's emphasis may be fruitfully joined to the church's traditional view of the
0:56.2	scriptural text. And it is with the nature of scripture that I will begin. However, tradition
1:04.0	and scripture are for the Catholic theologian inseparable, and thus it will not be long
1:09.2	before tradition makes an appearance.
1:12.3	I think the best way to begin is for us to think about where we are now in the long history
1:18.8	of Catholic reflection on scripture and its interpretation.
1:24.0	The period between the late 19th century and our own day has seen the gradual taking up by Catholic scholars of the emphasis of modern biblical criticism.
1:35.3	As has become increasingly clear in recent scholarship, the idea that Catholicism was implacably opposed to the Enlightenment until the mid-20th century is largely
1:46.1	nonsense. Catholic figures were engaged in accepting, modifying and arguing creatively with the
1:53.1	full range of Enlightenment and post-enlightenment figures throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.
1:59.2	And yet, Rome itself stood deeply opposed to Catholics,
2:03.6	taking on the methods and assumptions of historical critical biblical scholarship until the very end of the 19th century.
2:10.6	Beginning with Leo the 13th's encyclical, Providentissimus Deus in 1893, Leo's my favorite pope, by the way. The church came
2:20.3	slowly to see that there were many things of value in the style of historical reconstruction
	...

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