Saturday, May 29, 2010

Hahn New Testament with notes & commentary: endorsements

A reader writes:
Hahn's love of bad puns drives me nuts. But who cares! He has to be the answer to years of prayers for someone to cap the gushing well of liberal Scripture scholarship that was set loose last century with so much toxic damage. It's a certifiable miracle when arguably the most conservative Bible dictionary out today is published by Doubleday, or when Ignatius, the same publishing house that prints DeLubac and Balthasar, also happily and without as much as a hiccup prints a study Bible with notes every bit as conservative as anything printed by Crossway. And when a pro-gay marriage advocate at NRO can write an endorsement of it!
Speaking of whom, he also refers us to the following brief notice by Mike Potemra, "New Catholic Study New Testament" (National Review Online, May 26, 2010):
I recently got hold of an advance copy of Ignatius Press’s Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament, and I recommend it strongly for Catholic parish Bible study groups and for personal reading. (While Catholic distinctives are addressed in the notes, the tone is not that of hectoring apologetics; typical Protestant readers, therefore, can profit from reading them. The only reason I don’t go particularly out of my way to recommend the book to that audience is that Protestants already have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to study Bibles, while this book meets a long-unmet need among Catholics for a conservative Bible resource.) The articles are impressively lucid — I was quite taken, in particular, with the editors’ fascinating suggested explanation for why Luke may have been right, after all, about the census of Quirinius; and their exposition of why Paul’s doctrine on faith and works does not conflict with that of James. The book is, in addition, quite a bargain — 711 large-format pages, with very clear print and maps, for $21.95, or, at Amazon, $14.93. Kudos to Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch, who developed the book.

Hahn was a Presbyterian minister and is a Catholic convert, and his work combines the former’s love of Scripture with the latter’s love of the broader tradition of historical Western Christianity. (If he shepherds through an Old Testament volume of proportionate size to this one, he will also deserve credit for improving the physical fitness of any readers who chooses to carry it around without a wheelbarrow.)
[Hat tip to J.M.]

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

We have already preordered it. Even though I had decided to put a moratorium on purchasing books until I’d read at least half of the books on the shelf still waiting for me to crack them open, this one had to be an exception. His book HAIL HOLY QUEEN opened up a new world for this ex-Lutheran. I returned to the Church over 20 years ago. Even though I had had no intellectual problem with Mary and the Marian doctrines, I had a difficulty praying to her and it was quite a chore to pray the rosary, hence I rarely did. Today that has changed. If this next book of his is as good as I expect it to be, it will be well worth its price to say the least.

Donna

Anon said...

I always struggle with Hahn's speculative approach to biblical scholarship. Does this work take a different approach?

Anonymous said...

Anon,
I'm aware that Dr. Hahn speculated on the Holy Spirit. I'm also aware of his speculation about original sin. However, I have read some of his later books and have found no such speculation. I am not a theologian, if you know of other speculations I would be grateful if you would bring me up to speed. Truthfully, I had forgotten about those two issues until now. sigh

I would appreciate comments from others as well.

Donna

Anon said...

Dona,

Awhile ago I picked up "A Father Who Keeps His Promises" which is a biblical study of sorts that takes the reader through the old testament. I could be completely off base... but often I would come across an explanation that seemed to belong to Hahn instead of the Church. The book was very engaging and interesting, but I was not able to "check" Hahn's interpretations, and thus felt uncomfortable finishing the book.

For a Catholic it is the wrong approach to conclude our own interpretations when reading Sacred Scripture. We have Sacred Tradition that gives us a very strong understanding of the Bible.

If this new work of Hahn's is a compilation of Church teaching, then I am sure it will be good... if instead it is Hahn's efforts to understand and provide his own explanations, then I am not sure I see the value.

-Anon

Anonymous said...

Thank you Anon,
Well, it has arrived. If I find something that seems to be from Hahn rather than the Church I'll check it out. I would like to discuss all of what he calls covenants. I was aware of only two, but he has an Adamic covenant and others besides the Mosaic and the New Covenant. It would be an interesting discussion if someone would like to start one one day. Maybe there is one on the web that I'm unaware of.

Donna

Pertinacious Papist said...

Donna, the source of some of these ideas, as I recall, is the study of O.T. covenants and their structure by the Reformed scholar, Meredith Kline, who compares them to ancient Hittite suzerainty treaties. For example, the structure of the Decalogue, with it's initial identification by God of Himself as "the God who brought you out of Egypt" and the way in which the terms are spelled out by God echo the structure of the Hittite treaties. Kline's seminal work, as I recall, was called The Structure of Biblical Authority, and he has a number of more recent books, as I just saw by doing a search on his name at Amazon.com. Some of his titles show a stepfatherly resemblance to Hahn's, like Kline's Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview; Images of the Spirit; God, Heaven and Har Magedon: A Covenantal Tale of Cosmos and Telos; By Oath Consigned: A Reinterpretation of the Covenant Signs of Circumcision and Baptism ... for example.

The fact of this influence, and the fact of its being from a Protestant and Reformed mentor, should not by itself be viewed as necessarily problematic. Unless you are one of those reactionary Catholic converts who thinks she owes NOTHING to her Lutheran upbringing (which I doubt), I think you will agree that Protestant scholars sometimes have remarkable insights that are not the least bit inimical to our Catholic Faith. In fact, one might be inclined to wonder why this or that particular insight had not been developed by a Catholic in a certain way, seeing that it is in a profound sense a properly Catholic insight.

Please understand: I am not in any way a specialist in the covenant theology of Meredith Kline or Scott Hahn. From what little I know, however, I would not be at all surprised if we all have much to learn from them. The credibility of their insights, in any case, will have to be judged on their own merits.

Anonymous said...

Dr. Blosser,

I do indeed agree with you that we can learn a thing or three from some Protestant biblical scholars. I am not a scholar however and could be led into a wrong direction. So if anything that I read sounds a bit unorthodox, I like to research it. Also just a clarification I was raised in the Catholic Church pre-Vatican II. Like many folks of that era I left the Church but returned after ten years. I am what has been called a revert. Dr. Hahn played a significant role in my return to the Church. I'm sorry if I left the impression that I was raised Lutheran. If I had been more educated I may not have been led down the primrose path and would perhaps have known that there is nothing new under the sun. The Church has weathered storms as big as I went through and She will survive no matter what.

Donna

Pertinacious Papist said...

Dear Donna,

I'm wondering if I may have confused you with someone else; but I think not. I think it was from a comment in which you asked "Lutheran's" denominational affiliation, expressing an interest in the question because of your own familiarity with the various Lutheran denominations.

But perhaps this was during your sojourn away from Mother Church?


In any case, I look forward to your assessment of the book.

Anonymous said...

That was me. Lets just say that I'm betting that he is not a Missouri Synod or a Wisconsin fella.