 The Authority of Mark
What do Christians mean when they say that the Bible is the
‘Word of God’?
All Christians believe the Bible is important. They call it
‘the word of God’, but they understand this in different ways.
Fundamentalists believe the Bible is the literal word of God.
Extreme Fundamentalists believe, for example, that Adam and Eve were historical people.
Fundamentalists are Protestant and often very anti-Catholic.
Liberal Protestants believe that much of the Bible is symbolic,
and is not meant to be taken literally. Extreme liberals would say even the resurrection
is a symbolic event.
Most non-Catholics take a point of view between these extremes.
They believe that the Bible is the way God has spoken to his people, but some
passages should be understood symbolically. How they understand the Bible is very
important because all their religious ideas are based upon it.
Catholic understanding of the Bible
The Catholic Church teaches that Christ is the Word of God, and
this word is found in the Bible and in the life of the Church. This means that they
understand the Bible alongside the traditions of the Church. For this reason, the argument
between ‘Liberal’ and ‘Fundamentalist’ is not so important for
Catholics.
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Signposts
is a Painsley