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Catholic Interpretation Of The Bible

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Religion. Religion is something that everyone knows about, most people have, but no one really knows why exactly we have it. Although there are a myriad of different religions practiced by people all over the world with varying beliefs, the grand majority of widely practiced religions such as Christianity and Judaism are premised in their interpretation of the Bible. The Bible is a collection of texts written by human beings several hundred years ago, recounting a history of events from the creation of the universe by God to the supposed second coming of Christ sometime in the future. Different religions vary based on their interpretation of the Bible and the meaning they place behind this interpretation. Catholicism is based on a specific …show more content…

Although this is the main counterargument for the thesis of the paper, there are a myriad of examples of specific change in the religion over time depending on the societal attitudes that are ever evolving. An example of this comes from the changes or so-called improvements that have come out of the Vatican. If it was just that the religion was adding new information or growing to include new information, there would not be specific changes to the Catholic interpretation of the Bible, it would be that there was no assumptions made or observed from this solidified and unchanging interpretation of the Bible. However, this is not the case as observed in the book by Maines and McCallion discussing the liturgical change in the Vatican II Church. In the book it discusses how the interpretation of the Bible in the Catholic religion has evolved over time, being influenced by the major thinkers of the time and the societal attitudes and norms of that specific time. For example, Maines and McCallion describe that there were “two dominant changes with respect to Catholicism which occurred from roughly World War II to 1960” (9). These changes that occurred during this time period reflected the views of society and not only changed based on the changes in Catholics’ lifestyles, but changed the subsequent interpretation of the

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