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APOSTLES
As mentioned in
the Pentateuch Course Description, the Torah presents the
primary realities of the Old Testament. Then, the Prophets and
Writings reflect upon and develop these primary realities, with
the Prophets having a more historical foundation and the
Writings a theological and practical one.
The New Testament has a
similar division: The Gospels present the primary realities of the
Christian faith (Jesus Christ) while the rest of the New Testament
reflects upon and develops this. Acts of the Apostles and Revelation
have a more historical focus and the Epistles have a more theological
and practical focus.
Thus, this last course
in the seven-course “meal” the CLAA is offering on Scripture, reveals,
from the Apostolic period, the further development and application of
the primary reality of Jesus Christ. His Church continues His life and
mission in the world until she is perfected and united forever to Christ
her bridegroom beyond the end of time in Heaven.
Acts of the Apostles—The Birth
and Early Life of the Church
Failure to understand
this book has led some people into the error of thinking that
Christianity reveals a kind of religious relativism, since God
apparently has simply changed his mind about the Old covenant and
therefore the truth has changed to fit the circumstances. If we are to
understand the Church, and avoid this error, we must understand this
book. Acts is sometimes referred to as the Gospel of the Church because
in it we have the only explicit history of the life of the early Church.
The author of the work,
St. Luke, presents the life of the Church in such a way that it
parallels the life of Christ in his Gospel. As a biblical historian,
Luke does relate history but is ultimately doing so to reveal something
theological. The pitfalls to avoid here are the same as those in other
biblical historical books—getting lost in the history and forgetting the
theology. Luke is primarily concerned with the transition from the Old
covenant to the New Covenant and in showing that Christ and His Church,
now open to all people, are the fulfillment of all of God’s work
and promises from the beginning, not a negation of them. Students will
learn a detailed geographical, historical, and literary outline of Acts
with a view to understanding the theological and ecclesiological
connections that Luke is drawing between Christ and His Church.
Paul’s Epistles—The Growth and
Development of the Church and Her Teachings
After St. Luke, St.
Paul wrote most of the New Testament. Since the second half of Acts of
the Apostles is about Paul’s missionary journeys, Acts is the perfect
introduction to Paul’s letters, which are written to people in cities he
visited during the history recorded in Acts. In these letters we find
both a systematic theological development of the doctrines of
Christianity and also a systematic practical application of these
doctrines to Christian living. These facts make Paul’s Epistles some of
the most important material in the New Testament.
They were so important
that even St. Peter read them.
What he has to say
about them is very revealing:
“So also our beloved brother Paul
wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as
he does in all his letters. There are some things in them hard to
understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own
destruction, as they do the other scriptures. You therefore,
beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away
with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability.” (2 Peter
3:15-17)
What St. Peter
describes has happened more than once in the history of the Church. The
misreading and twisting of Paul’s letters has indeed led people to
destruction and a loss of their stability in Christ.
The classical approach
taken by this course gives the student the ability to read Paul
correctly by uniting faith and reason. The course will closely follow
the logic of Paul’s theological and practical arguments and will do so
under the guidance of the Catholic faith. Read in this way Paul is no
danger, but is rather an enormous help to Christian faith and life
through his teaching and his example of zeal for Christ.
Catholic Epistles—The Life of
the Church in the World Until the End of Time
This short section of
the New Testament, often glossed over in Bible studies, is nevertheless
important in that it reveals the Church at work in the world—the bishops
and people united with each other and with Christ. In the canon of the
New Testament, we first get the Gospels, which might be called “the acts
and teachings of Jesus Christ.” Then we get “The Acts of the Apostles.”
After that we get what might be called “the teaching of the Apostles” in
the letters. The Catholic Epistles are the teaching of the Apostles as
addressed to the universal (= catholic) Church rather than to the Church
in a particular place as Paul’s letters are (such as Rome, Corinth, or
Galatia).
Another way to see the
importance of these letters is that six of them are written by the
special inner circle of three Apostles--Peter, James and John (plus one
more by Jude, for a total of seven). Although they do contain the
teaching of the Apostles, these letters are not primarily doctrinal in
nature, but are rather of a PASTORAL character, combining teaching about
Christ with exhortation to prayer, holiness, and good works. They might
almost be called to first encyclicals of the church and they represent
the Church taking its place in the world to sanctify it through
self-sacrifice and zeal for Christ until the end of time.
Revelation—The Church at the
End of Time and Beyond
There are two extremes
one encounters with this final book of the Bible:
1. People avoid it
because the symbolism in it is difficult to understand or
2. People engage it but
for the wrong reason thinking that if they can crack the code of the
symbolism they will have a nice neat calendar of events for the end of
the world.
This beautiful book,
which is the counterpart at the end of Sacred Scripture to Genesis at
the beginning, does require careful reading, but is ultimately written
to reveal, as its name indicates. Ultimately, it reveals one
simple message:
“Surely I am coming soon. Amen. Come
Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).
This message is meant
to give hope, joy, zeal, and encouragement to the faithful members of
the Church of every time until the end of time, especially the
suffering. The purpose of creation, which is the worship of God, will
find its fulfillment in the faithful of the Church who will be united
with each other and with God in the never-ending divine joy and intimate
love of Heaven.
And I saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice saying, “Behold,
the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them and they
shall be his people, and God Himself will be with them; He will wipe
away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither
shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more.” (Rev 21:2-4)
For those who have
become lax in their practice of the faith, on the other hand, the same
message is a warning:
“You have abandoned the love you had
at the first. Remember then from what you have fallen, repent and do
the works you did at first. If not I will come to you and remove
your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” (Rev 2:4-5)
For those who have
rejected God by their actions, the same message is a just condemnation:
“And the devil who had deceived them
was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and
the false prophet were and they will be tormented day and night
forever and ever.” (Rev 20:10)
Or again,
“Outside are dogs and sorcerers and
fornicators and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and
practices falsehood.” (Rev 22:15)
Thus, although the
symbols point to various historical realities, the historical realities
themselves all point to the central message. The central message is that
history has an end and that that end is God and only those prepared to
meet God by “washing their robes and making them white in the blood of
the Lamb” (Rev 7:14) and living God’s life now will survive that
meeting:
“The world and all of its
allurements is passing away, but he who does the will of God abides
forever.” (1 John 1:17)
The classical approach
of this course will deal with the symbolism, structure, and theology of
Revelation in order to make this “final message” of the Bible clear and
applicable to our life now and (hopefully) fruitful for our LIFE
hereafter. |
Nathan
Schmiedicke, Ph.D.
