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Salve Friend,
Welcome to Quaero, Emory's Catholic theology discussion group designed for non-theologians. I
am excited to announce that we are about to kick off our Spring 2023 series: How Catholics
Read the Bible. Our first meeting is Wednesday, March 15, 2023, at 6:00 pm Eastern
Daylight Time (EDT) at the Emory Catholic Center. For our first meeting will include a brief
introduction to Quaero and a discussion of what Catholics understand to be the Word of God.
Brief Overview
Emory Quaero: Theology for Non-Theologians is a theology discussion group that explores
major questions about the Catholic Faith in a communal setting. For each session, members can
read an optional, pre-circulated packet of 4-8 pages of reading about a theological topic and meet
for about one hour to discuss that topic. No formal theology background is expected, and all
interested Emory students (undergraduate and graduate), alums, and staff are
invited to join. You are welcome to invite anyone affiliated with Emory to our discussions. For
more information, please email Robert Billups (william.robert.billups@emory.edu).
Mission
Our mission is to live out St. Anselm's famous phrase, "Faith seeking understanding." Each
week, we gather to learn more about the Catholic faith in an informal yet intentional setting,
were will discuss a weekly topic from a position of faith and with the ambition of coming to a
greater understanding of God and His Church, both visible and invisible.
Series
Quaero runs each semester as a four- to five-week series organized around a carefully selected
topic or theme. Multiweek series allows us to dive deeper into our topics, explore connections
between our weekly discussions, and grow stronger as a community. However, the individual
sessions are designed so you do not need to attend all of them to have a great Quaero experience.
In the Spring 2023 series, we will spend five weeks explorijg how Catholics read the Bible. Each
week, we are going to work together to assess a particular aspect of how Catholics understand
and read Scripture, and we will answer several, questions, including: 1) Who is the author of
Scripture, and how should we account for that authorship when we read Scripture, 2) what
frameworks and interpretive lenses do Catholics use when reading the Bible, 3) What is the
relationship between the Old Testament and New Testament? These are some of the many
questions we will address in our efforts to come to a better understanding of the role of Sacred
Scripture in the Catholic Faith. Our discussion schedule can be found below:
Schedule
Week 1 – March 15, 6:00 pm EDT – Introduction and the Word of God
Week 2 – March 22, 7:00 pm EDT – Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition
Week 3 – April 5, 7:00 pm EDT – Senses of Scripture and the Old Testament
Week 4 – April 12, 7:00 pm EDT – Senses of Scripture and the New Testament
Week 5 – April 19, 7:00 pm EDT – Scripture and the Life of the Church
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Reading Suggestions
Each week's discussion will be supported by a short packet of 4–8 pages of optional readings.
The readings are designed to give everyone entry points into discussion and a chance to build
knowledge on particular topics, and you do NOT have to do the readings to participate in
the discussions. The types of readings vary quite a bit in order to illustrate the different ways
that the Church has approached questions of faith. However, Quaero is not a reading seminar:
our discussions will use the readings to ground and support discussions about the Catholic faith,
but our conversations are in no way bounded by the texts in the packets. For those who are
interested, all five reading packets for this series are contained in this single PDF. I have bolded
the most significant parts of each reading and included a table of contents below:
Week 1 - Introduction and the Word of God. p. 3.
Week 2 – Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. p. 11.
Week 3 – Senses of Scripture and the Old Testament. p. 18.
Week 4 – Senses of Scripture and the New Testament. p. 22.
Week 5 – Scripture and the Life of the Church. p. 26.
Please join us in this opportunity to grow in faith and community. Do not hesitate to email me if
you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, and I hope to see you on March 15th
.
Sincerely,
Robert Billups
Emory University Department of History, PhD Student
william.robert.billups@emory.edu
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Emory Quaero: Theology for Non-Theologians
How Catholics Read the Bible, Week 1: The Word of God
“All Wisdom is from the Lord and remains with him forever” (Sirach 1:1).
Welcome: Welcome to Quaero, or Theology for Non-Theologians—a place for exploring a
range of theological topics in a communal setting. There is no expectation of formal theological
training, and a small selection of readings (normally less than ten pages) will be supplied for
each meeting to serve as launching point of discussion. These readings will normally be included
in the packet, but occasionally they will be substituted with scanned files or connected to
external links . You do not have to complete the readings to come to the meetings, but they are
there as a resource and are strongly recommended, especially if we are discussing a topic with
which you are not quite as familiar.
Guiding Questions: Each packet will include a set of guiding questions, which are meant to
guide your approach to the readings and serve as launching points of discussion. To begin, we
are going to define and discuss the Word of God, the starting point not only for understanding
Scripture but the Christian faith more generally. Please consider the following questions:
1. When we see the term “the Word,” “word of God,” or “the Word of God,” what do
we understand it to mean? What does it mean in the Prologue to the Gospel
According to St. John? What are other meanings these phrases convey?
2. Who is the author of Scripture, and how should we account for that authorship when
we read Scripture?
3. How do we understand Scripture’s relationship with Divine Revelation?
4. Can Sacred Scripture err? Why or why not?
5. Is Catholicism a “religion of the book”?
READINGS
1. The Gospel According to St. John, 1:1–18 (~1 page). https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/1.
2. Pope Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini (2008), §5–8 (~2 pages). Bold Added,
http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/apost_exhortations/documents/hf_ben- xvi_exh_20100930_verbum-domini.html.
3. Pope Paul VI, Dei Verbum (1965), § 1–5, 11–13 (~1.5 pages). Bolded added,
https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat- ii_const_19651118_dei-verbum_en.html.
4. Catechism of the Catholic Church, §101–108 (~1 page).
https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p1s1c2a3.htm.