Catechism of the Catholic Church, on Sacred Scripture:
[101]”In order to reveal himself to men, in the condescension of his goodness God speaks to them in human words...[102] Through all the words of Sacred Scripture, God speaks only one single Word, his one Utterance in whom he expresses himself completely: ‘You recall that one and the same Word of God extends throughout Scripture, that it is one and the same Utterance that resounds in the mouths of all the sacred writers, since he who was in the beginning God with God has no need of separate syllables; for he not subject to time.’(Heb 1:1-3)”
109 “In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their words.
110 In order to discover the sacred authors’ intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking, and narrating then current...
111 But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no less important principle of correct interpretation, without which Scripture would remain a dead letter...
112 1. Be especially attentive to the content and unity of the whole Scripture. Different as the books which comprise it may be, Scripture is a unity by reason of the unity of God’s plan, of which Christ Jesus is the center and heart, open since his Passover...
113 2. Read the Scripture within the living Tradition of the whole Church. According to a saying of the Fathers, Sacred Scripture is written principally in the Church’s heart rather than in documents and records, for the Church carries in her Tradition the living memorial of God’s Word, and it is the Holy Spirit who gives her the spiritual interpretation of the Scripture...
114 3. Be attentive to the analogy of faith. By ‘analogy of faith’ we mean the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation.
115 According to an ancient tradition, one can distinguish between two senses of Scripture: the literal and the spiritual, the latter being subdivided into the allegorical, moral, and anagogical senses. The profound concordance of the four senses guarantees all its richness to the living reading of Scripture in the Church.
116 The literal sense is the meaning conveyed by the words of Scripture and discovered by exegesis...
117 The spiritual sense. Thanks to the unity of God’s plan, not only the text of Scripture but also the realities and events about which it speaks can be signs.
117 1. The allegorical sense. We can acquire a more profound understanding of events by recognizing their significance in Christ; thus the crossing of the Red Sea is a sign or type of Christ’s victory and also of Christian Baptism.
117 2. The moral sense. The events reported in Scripture ought to lead us to act justly...
117 3. The anagogical sense. We can view realities and events in terms of their eternal significance, leading us toward our true homeland: thus the Church on earth is a sign of the heavenly Jerusalem.
118 A medieval couplet summarizes the significance of the four senses: The Letter speaks of deeds; Allegory to faith; the Moral how to act; Anagogy our destiny.”
110 In order to discover the sacred authors’ intention, the reader must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling, speaking, and narrating then current...
Thank you for proving my point, firerosemom.
The official catechism of the Catholic Church here endorses late nineteenth century liberal German Protestant higher criticism and jumps through hoops to explain that the first eleven chapters of Genesis don't actually mean what they say. Meanwhile, these same hypocrites illogically insist that the new testament is to be interpreted literally when it comes to the virgin birth, resurrection, and transubstantiation because "G-d can do anything!"
Logic tells us that if the new testament means what it says, then so does the first eleven chapters of Genesis. The real reason Catholics accept one and not the other is because Genesis is for "trailer trash," and Catholics (at least American Catholics) aren't "trailer trash."
Verdugo?