Letter & Spirit, Vol. 1: Reading Salvation: Word, Worship, and the Mysteries
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- $19.99
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Scott Hahn and the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology have joined with biblical scholars around the world to bring about the first new Catholic biblical theology journal of the third millennium, Letter & Spirit.
David Scott, managing editor of the journal and acclaimed author of The Catholic Passion (Loyola, 2005) writes in his introduction to the inaugural issue that Letter & Spirit is a response to what “some have gone so far as to describe as a ‘crisis’ in contemporary understanding of the Bible.”
“Indeed,” Scott continues, “we would suggest that a failure to think straight about the Bible risks confounding our worship…and rendering uncertain the Church’s witness to the culture and to other believers.” Letter & Spirit works to counteract the separation of the literary and historical study of Scripture from its living, spiritual meaning in Church liturgy and Tradition.
The inaugural issue of Letter & Spirit—with “Reading Scripture: Word, Worship, and the Mysteries” as its theme—boasts such contributors as James Swetnam, SJ, Robert Louis Wilken, Sofia Cavalletti, Jeremy Driscoll, OSB, Brant Pitre, Christopher T. Baglow, Marcellino D’Ambrosio, and other noteworthy biblical scholars. Alongside these contemporary offerings, a “Tradition and Traditions” section highlights the writings of Hugh of St. Victor, Augustin Cardinal Bea, SJ, and F. X. Durrwell. Scott Hahn is both a contributor and the general editor of the series.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Since converting to Catholicism in 1986, Hahn, a former Presbyterian minister, has turned out a series of user-friendly books illuminating the mysteries of his adopted faith for the average Catholic. Here, he takes a new direction and some risk by addressing two audiences: fellow academics and readers of his bestselling theology books. Inviting devotees of these popular works to "go deeper," Hahn takes on the lofty subject of scripture and its relationship to liturgy. He shows how scriptural texts have been intimately tied to ritual public worship since the early Christian church and even before that in the Jewish temple. The first Christians, he writes, encountered scripture in their liturgy, not in devotional reading, adding that the Bible modern Christians read was canonized to be proclaimed during worship. For theological novices, Hahn devotes a chapter to defining such technical terms as economy, typology, and mystagogy, and to satisfy academics, he supports his text with references to the work of scripture scholars, ending with more than 20 pages of detailed notes. Hahn's approach in this book requires thoughtful reading, and it remains to be seen whether the audience he cultivated with popular works like The Lamb's Supper will warm to it.
