Expert: Tom Schott - 9/2/2005

Question
My longtime friend(part Catholic/part fundamentalist), yeah, I know, it's a little wierd; his wife(who exhibits an extremely strong influence on him) caused him to be sitting on the fence between Catholicism and Fundamentalism. Anyway, we have a running argument about Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium.

Our latest argument is on the Catholic interpretation of Creation(evolution of body but not soul), whether Jonah was in the Big Fish for 3 days, Walls of Jericho, Noah's Ark, Sun stopping in sky for a day in Joshua, etc.

His contention on Catholic interpretation is that is has NO interpretation! That is, we Catholics can understand Creation as a literal six days, or much longer; that Jonah was literally in the Big Fish for 3 days, or that this story is a moral metaphor, etc.

He contends that if the Church can "interpret" scripture stories in different ways, such as these cited, then a Catholic should be able to understand, for example, that Christ gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter, or maybe to another apostle, or even someone else. He is using an analogy to explain his point. He can't begin to understand how Catholic scriptural scholarship can have more than one interpretation for ANY part in the Bible. How can one passage be interpreted literally(e.g., Peter and the keys), and another passage be metaphorical. Hence, to him, this is NO interpretation at all.

I tried to tie in Sacred Tradition(predates scripture by 300+ years) and the Magisterium in interpreting the scriptures. He thinks the Magisterium was created in the Middle Ages, and that Sacred Tradition was also created then, or maybe a few hundred years before.

I told him Sacred Tradition began with the very beginning of the Church, and so did the Magisterium.

It is very frustrating(as you know) in trying to get a point across to this Catholic who has become a scriptural literalist. So, please give me some guidance and substance that I can try to convince him is the Truth.

Thank you.


Answer
Arthur,

 Sorry, you are not going to be able to convince him of the "truth." You are assuming that the truth is what your friend wants. That's not what he wants. What he wants is validation of his position.

 Although you probably will not want to hear this, or follow this counsel, I think it's best not to argue with anybody about Scripture. Much less a fledgling fundamentalist with a full-grown fundamentalist in his corner. It's a losing proposition, because no matter what you say, it will not be conclusive. This kind of argument never ends. This is the reason you're frustrated. It doesn't matter that you present him with correct information; he is not interested in anything but his own point of view. I don't know if you expected this kind of response, but I urge you to consider it. Just stop arguing with this guy: tell him, I'm sure that God will bless whatever path you choose to seek Him, and then be done with it. Let me know what happens. God bless.