Roman Catholic and The Bible.

[Jill]

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[darinhouston]

How can you say you are right when you are the one doing the interpreting?

Is this the only area where you follow this logic? I see it raining outside -- I interpret that as a risk of getting wet. I have no authority to tell me this, and yet I am fairly certain of my interpretation. Sometimes, I see a grey cloud and interpret that as likely to rain -- I wear golashes and no rain comes -- sure, I was wrong, but having a weather man tell me doesn't change the risk of my interpreting ANYTHING wrongly or correctly.

With Scripture, we try to apply logic and history and tradition and common sense to a consistent hermeneutic. We can't know we're right, but we can form our best judgment for our conscience, hopefully guided by the Holy Spirit, and try to maintain humility out of recognition we may be wrong. Sometimes, however, it is easy to see logical fallacies or point out false presuppositions, which can defeat an opposing view with some certainty regardless of the "authority" that affirms it.

[Jill]

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[darinhouston]

I guess my analogy isn't all that good.

[Jill]

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[tom]

How can you say you are right when you are the one doing the interpreting?

With Scripture, we try to apply logic and history and tradition and common sense to a consistent hermeneutic.

If we go with Scripture, history and tradition you would have to be Catholic!

We can't know we're right, but we can form our best judgment for our conscience, hopefully guided by the Holy Spirit,... Sometimes, however, it is easy to see logical fallacies or point out false presuppositions, which can defeat an opposing view with some certainty regardless of the "authority" that affirms it.

If we can't know if we are right and we teach it and we are wrong...aren't we teaching false doctrine,(Titus 2:1)? Everyman did what was right in his own eyes!

Tom

[darinhouston]

If we can't know if we are right and we teach it and we are wrong...aren't we teaching false doctrine,(Titus 2:1)? Everyman did what was right in his own eyes!

Tom

I don't understand Titus 2:1 to be speaking of perfect doctrine, but instead to wise teaching as to how folks should live, etc. But, yes, we risk teaching a doctrine that is false, which is why we should teach with all humility and present alternative views where we are uncertain or at least ensure that our audience understands when we're unsure, etc.

I don't see how this risk can be helped, and in particular I don't see how teaching a false doctrine blessed by the Magisterium somehow reduces this risk.

[steve]

Tom,

You wrote:

If we can't know if we are right and we teach it and we are wrong...aren't we teaching false doctrine,(Titus 2:1)?

We certainly need to obey the scripture you gave (Tit.2:1), which tells us to teach sound doctrine. Fortunately, we have that scripture and the verses following it to tell us precisely what "sound doctrine" is—so that we can depend upon the scriptures, not the church authorities, to tell us what sound doctrines we must teach.

[darinhouston]

Yes, I don't know what I was thinking other than thinking of the broader context of Titus 2.

[darinhouston]

While we certainly all would agree that we should teach as correct a doctrine as we can, re-reading Titus, I'm not so sure this is warning us against the accidental error in our interpretation Tom suggests may occur by well-meaning Protestants, but is a a warning against teaching things (divining Scripture or not) which you know to be wrong for your own gain or which would lead the brethren not to live rightly, etc. (in fact, didaskalia doesn't need to be translated as "doctrine" or "teaching" but also "learning," which seems to match the following text more). In any event, regardless of the main point of this text, we know we should not teach wrong doctrine no matter who promulgates the doctrine.

With that in mind, Tom, how do you square Acts 17:10 with a dogmatic reliance on the authority of the Magisterium to determine doctrine? Surely, the Magisterium derives its authority from its apostolic lineage, and here is an example where the people didn't even take the words of Paul as dogmatically true without testing it first against the one authority they did have -- Scripture.