The Bible doesn't come with a secret decoder ring, which means that it is left to church theologians to make sense of the Bible's many intricate and overlapping themes. Over the centuries, the church has identified several themes--such as love and covenant--that have helped the faithful to better understand a sometimes bewildering book. In Holy People, Holy Land, authors Dauphinais and Levering make the case that holiness--which they define as communion with God through love of neighbor--is the central theme of Scripture. Holy People, Holy Land will give any reader the tools to better understand Scripture by showing how a holy God desires to recreate his children in his image so that they too can be holy.
Since the outset of the Enlightenment, the divide between biblical scholarship and prayerful reading has threatened to permanently isolate the history of the scriptures from the historical witness of its community-that is, the Church. In the tradition of the Church Fathers (they name St. Augustine in particular), theology professors Michael Dauphinais and Matthew Levering offer a 'theological reading' of the Bible, by which they mean 'an interpretation that.seeks to illumine the divinely inspired, salvific meaning of the Bible, guided by the doctrinal and spiritual insights of the theological tradition and focused upon the canonical Bible rather than upon questions regarding the origin and authenticity of the Bible's narrative.' Such a catechesis allows Scripture a reality of its own within which all men can fit their lives. Tracing the theme of holiness from the covenant of creation through the new covenant of Christ, Dauphinais and Levering highlight the narratives of Eden, Abraham, Moses, David, the Psalms and Prophets, the Gospels of Matthew and John, Paul's letters to the Romans and Hebrews, and John's Revelations. Though Adam and Eve's sin of pride displaced them as holy people and thereby expelled them from the holy land, the biblical narrative of salvation reveals the path by which God's people are made holy and enabled to dwell in perfect union with him through Christ-the material and spiritual embodiment of Holy People, Holy Land.
Since the outset of the Enlightenment, the divide between biblical scholarship and prayerful reading has threatened to permanently isolate the history of the scriptures from the historical witness of its community-that is, the Church. In the tradition of the Church Fathers (they name St. Augustine in particular), theology professors Michael Dauphinais and Matthew Levering offer a 'theological reading' of the Bible, by which they mean 'an interpretation that.seeks to illumine the divinely inspired, salvific meaning of the Bible, guided by the doctrinal and spiritual insights of the theological tradition and focused upon the canonical Bible rather than upon questions regarding the origin and authenticity of the Bible's narrative.' Such a catechesis allows Scripture a reality of its own within which all men can fit their lives. Tracing the theme of holiness from the covenant of creation through the new covenant of Christ, Dauphinais and Levering highlight the narratives of Eden, Abraham, Moses, David, the Psalms and Prophets, the Gospels of Matthew and John, Paul's letters to the Romans and Hebrews, and John's Revelations. Though Adam and Eve's sin of pride displaced them as holy people and thereby expelled them from the holy land, the biblical narrative of salvation reveals the path by which God's people are made holy and enabled to dwell in perfect union with him through Christ-the material and spiritual embodiment of Holy People, Holy Land.
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