The Church and the Bible:  Official Documents of the Catholic Church  Author: Dennis J. Murphy, M.S.C.  ISBN:0-8189-1250-4  Hardbound: xcvi + 1048 pp.  Price: $24.95 + shipping  To order call: 1 800-343-ALBA (2522)  Please have your Master, Visa,  or American Express Card ready. To order online click here.		The Church and the Bible is a resource book that all branches of theology will find useful: not only Biblical scholars, but those interested in the dogmatic, moral, liturgical, pastoral and spiritual teachings of the Church. Typical examples are the Pontifical Biblical Commission's studies on Christology, the Church, interpretation of the Bible, and the Jewish people and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible, all made available here in one volume in English. These and other documents, are indispensable resources for students of current theology, as well as for those interested in history. A long introduction gives the historical context of the documents as well as the norms to be used in interpreting them. Care is also taken to explain their various levels of authority in order to avoid the danger that the same value be given to all of them indiscriminately.

  Dennis J. Murphy, M.S.C., studied at the Gregorian University and the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. On returning to Australia he lectured in biblical studies for eighteen years. In 1970 he became the Rector of St. Paul's, Kensington, N.S.W., the Australian National Seminary for late vocations. In 1974 he was elected Provincial Superior of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, and from 1981 to 1993 Assistant General in Rome. In recent years he has been resident in India. He is the author of His Servants the Prophets, The Apostle of Corinth, The Challengt to Hope, The Heart of Our Mission and the co-author of Your Kingdom Come.    

This second edition of the work first published in 2001 has added fourteen documents, and the introductions and background sections have been revised and largely rewritten. It contains 178 official Catholic Church documents pertaining to the Bible and biblical studies. After introductory chapters on the documents and their interpretation and on their historical background, the material is presented in four parts: from the Muratorian Fragment to the Council of Trent -- 2nd century to 1563 (thirty-one); from Pope Pius VI to Pius XI -- 1779-1934 (fifty-one); from Pius XII to Paul VI and the Vatican Council II -- 1939-65 (twenty-eight); and Pope Paul VI to Pope Benedict XVI -- 1968-2006 (sixty-eight). Among the texts are Vatican II's Dei verbum (1965) and the Pontifical Biblical Commission's documents on interpreting the Bible in the Church (1993) and on the Jewish people and their Sacred Scriptures in the Christian Bible (2001). --New Testament Abstracts, Vol. 52, no. 2, p. 372.