Understanding the Bible: The Anagogical Sense

Question: What do the anagogical sense and a committed relationship / marriage have in common? Let’s explore the answer… In our modern way world, we have almost universal literacy; the lowest poverty rate in history; immediate access to a colossally powerful, ever expanding network of information (A.K.A. the Internet); sweeping technological advances in just about…

Understanding the Bible: The Moral Sense

When thinking about the four senses of interpreting Scripture, If the term “moral sense” immediately conjures up thoughts of being puritanically righteous; or if it makes you think, “Uh oh, I better be good!”, or “This is the part where I’ll probably get my hand slapped!” – then welcome to the world of being…human! After…

Understanding the Bible: The Allegorical Sense

If you have ever had a conversation with your friends, family, or colleagues about reading the Bible, you may have heard at least one person in your life say, “The Bible isn’t meant to be taken literally”, or “The Bible is just a lot of allegory and parables.”  Or some of your more scholarly acquaintances…

Understanding the Bible: The Literal Sense

From the Catechism (109) of the Catholic Church: “In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what the human authors truly wanted to affirm and to what God wanted to reveal to us by their word.” Keep the above quote in mind…