DIVINO AFFLANTE SPIRITU. - Encyclical of Pius XII, of 30 Sept. 1943 (AAS, 35 [1943], pp. 297-325) on the most fitting way to promote biblical studies; a subject always carefully followed, promoted and defended, against errors and exaggerations, by the Church over the course of the centuries, since Sacred Scripture is one of the two sources of Revelation and contains the divine Word with the charism of inspiration and the consequent inerrancy.
In the first part the encyclical, taking its starting point from Providentissimus Deus of Leo XIII, of 18 Nov. 1893 (Acta Leonis XIII, 13 [1893], pp. 326-64), gives a rapid survey of the salutary effects that derived from it and that are manifested in the many further institutions and provisions on the part of the pontiffs; in the various initiatives that arose to spread ever more widely among the faithful the reading of the Bible, especially of the Gospels; in the numerous scriptural publications that appeared everywhere; in the institution of «biblical courses», «biblical weeks», etc.
But since much still remains to be done and further progress is possible for the solution of problems either new or not yet fully resolved, the encyclical, in the second part, traces a program of scientific work converging on the ever deeper and more precise study of the original texts. For this there is required: the study of the ancient languages, carried further; textual criticism exercised with logical accuracy; the perfect interpretation of the sense, determining well the literal sense and the theological doctrine that is contained in it; the exact use of the exegetical writings of the Holy Fathers and of the ecclesiastical writers; a broad knowledge of profane literature, which can make hermeneutics easier. There are added moreover precautionary norms for the question of literary genres; and words of lively exhortation to the reading and to the well-prepared and well-founded explanation of the word of God among the faithful, and to the intimate and deeply felt love on the part of priests toward «that pure and perennial source of spiritual life», which is Sacred Scripture.
Bibliography
Celestino Testore