RELIGIOUS LITERACY:
Checking the Basics

1

Adult Catholics should have a working knowledge of the Bible:

• The 72 books of the Bible (45 in the Hebrew Scriptures and 27 in the New Testament) were written by various authors in different historical periods using a variety of literary forms.

They should know the main outline of biblical history:

• The Exodus under Moses occurred around the 13th century BCE.
• There was a gradual conquest of Palestine during the next few centuries.
• Following the conquest, the monarchy was established and solidified under Saul, David and Solomon at the beginning of the new millennium (1000 BCE).
• There were subsequent series of wars with foreign invaders, including the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom in 721 BCE.
• The Babylonian capture and destruction of Jerusalem occurred in 586 BCE and the return from exile happened in 539 BCE.
• The Greeks, under Alexander the Great, conquered Palestine around 332 BCE.
• The Romans occupied the Holy Land in 63 BCE.
• Roman rule lasted throughout the New Testament period and included another destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE.

Adults should know the stories of the great figures of the Hebrew Scriptures:

• the ancestors of the Israelites: Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel
• the great liberator Moses
• the judges such as Samson and Samuel
• the kings, especially David and Solomon
• The great prophetic figures Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel

Turning to the New Testament, adult Catholics should:

• recognize the importance of the apostle Paul and know some of the major themes of his letters, for example, that we are members of the Body of Christ and should live in charity with one another
• have confidence that the four Gospels give us a substantially correct picture of the historical Jesus and that they enrich our understanding of the Lord by presenting him from diverse perspectives
• know something about the distinctive literary form known as apocalyptic literature found in the Book of Revelation

Today’s Catholics should have a clear understanding of the spirit and main teachings of the Second Vatican Council.  (For younger adults, the Council is an historical event and not  remembered as the transforming experience it was for some ministers. Parishioners must know about Vatican II because it continues to guide the life of the church today.) They should know that:

• From 1962–1965 more than 3,000 bishops from around the world met  and, with the help of theological experts, produced 16 documents.
• Some of the documents reflect unresolved conflicts between conservative and progressive bishops, meaning there are passages which can be used to support opposed positions today.

• full active participation in the liturgy
• participation of all baptized in the universal priesthood of Christ
• co-responsibility of Christians for the church
• the laity’s responsibility for transforming the world
• the great importance of the Scriptures as the normative witness to divine revelation
• encouragement of ecumenical dialogue
• an optimistic understanding of salvation based on divine love and fidelity to conscience

Adult Catholics should know the main themes of the social teaching of the church and be able to apply it to concrete contemporary issues.  Modern Catholic social teaching began in 1891 when Pope Leo XIII published his famous encyclical Rerum Novarum, which presented a Catholic perspective on important social issues such as the right of workers to form unions. By entering into dialogue with the modern world, Leo XIII opened the way to a developing body of Catholic social teaching, including important papal documents:

• Quadragesimo Anno (1931) by Pius XI, which proposed the principle of subsidiarity
• Pacem in Terris (1963) by John XXIII, which defended human rights and called for world peace
• Octagesimo Adveniens (1971) by Paul VI, which recognized the importance of political liberation as well as economic development
• Centesimus Annus (1991) by John Paul II, which examines the strengths and weaknesses of capitalism and the free market
• The Second Vatican Council made an important contribution to Catholic social thought through its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes), which addressed a wide variety of issues ranging from family life to nuclear weapons.
• Throughout the twentieth century, the bishops of the United States have addressed the social questions facing the country. Of special note are their pastoral letters The Challenge of Peace (1983) and Economic Justice for All (1986), which serve as excellent models for Catholic approaches to important issues facing the country.

7

In a culture struggling to find role models, our communities should be familiar with the saints and spiritual leaders who give a human face to Catholic ideals.  Out of that immense cloud of witnesses we can recall:

• the mystics John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila
• the reformers Catherine of Siena and Francis de Sales
• the popes Gregory the Great and John XXIII
• the doctors of the church Jerome and Therese of Lisieux
• the martyrs Edith Stein and Oscar Romero
• the American spiritual leaders Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton
• founders of orders Francis and Clare of Assisi, Dominic Guzman, Ignatius of Loyola, Jane Frances de Chantal and Mother Teresa

Educated Catholics should know the great theologians who have developed new paradigms for articulating the Christian faith:

• the apostle Paul, who insisted on justification through faith
• the evangelist John, who presents Jesus and the Paraclete as the source of truth and life
• Origen, who articulated Christian faith in terms of Neoplatonic philosophy
• Augustine, who rethought Christianity in the wake of the fall of Rome
• Aquinas, who incorporated Aristotelian philosophy into a Christian framework
• Karl Rahner, who reinterpreted the Christian tradition in a modern context

Catholics should have a general sense of the broad outline of church history, including the following:

• the production of the New Testament during the first century after the death of Jesus
• the Roman persecutions from 64 CE under Nero until early in the fourth century
• the conversion of Constantine and the granting of a privileged position to Christianity in the Roman Empire
• the rise of monasticism, first in the East and then in the West, especially in the sixth century under St. Benedict’s influence
• the official split between the Eastern and Western churches in 1054
• the creation of the great theological syntheses during the Middle Ages, especially by Aquinas in the 13th century
• the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century followed the Council of Trent and reform within the Catholic Church
• the First Vatican Council in 1870

Educated Catholics should have a fundamental knowledge of the major areas of theology. They should be familiar with:

• a Christian anthropology that recognizes that we are interdependent creatures with a positive orientation to the Creator of life
• a doctrine of God that understands the transcendent God to be present in the world and the ultimate source of our capacity for love and knowledge
• a theology of grace which knows that we are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is more powerful than all the dark forces
• a theology of revelation which appreciates that all finite realities are potentially revelatory of the Infinite
• a soteriology which emphasizes that God grants the grace of salvation to those who faithfully follow their conscience
• a Christology which sees Jesus as the parable of the Father and the paradigm of fulfilled humanity
• an ecclesiology which celebrates the church as the communion of baptized believers and the sacrament of the risen Lord
• a moral theology which is centered on the love of God and neighbor
• a sacramental theology that sees the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, as actualizations of the life of the church and privileged encounters with the risen Christ
• an eschatology which hopes for a final positive completion of the historical process and the ultimate fulfillment of the longings of the human heart in the life where God is all in all