Many changes in the way that Catholics use, appreciate and respond to the Bible have taken place in the 40 years since the close of Vatican II. This has been a breathtaking recovery of our own traditions.

Beginning in the early 50s of the first century and continuing perhaps into the early years of the second, it was our Catholic ancestors who composed the writings of the New Testament. During the second through fourth centuries these writings were copied by hand, distributed and canonized by the early Catholic Church so that all could believe. From that time to the present, the Bible has been a treasury of the Catholic Church's teachings and a major source of inspiration and comfort for all who believe.

Recognizing that a renewal in appreciation for the whole of the Bible would be a source of spiritual growth for all believers, the Second Vatican Council --- on Nov. 18, 1965 --- issued Dei Verbum ("Word of God"). Their intention was that, "by hearing the message of salvation the whole world may believe, by believing it may hope, and by hoping it may love" (Dei Verbum 1).

The fruits of this document were immediate and wide ranging: an increase in Bible study among Catholics, ordained and lay; an improved and expanded curriculum of biblical studies in seminaries, colleges and universities; a renewal of the biblical focus of preaching; improved translations of the Bible from the original languages; an increased level of ecumenical engagement focusing on the Bible as a shared sacred trust; a renewed interest in the biblical languages, that is in Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic; and the creation of a broad variety of educational programs (e.g., the Bible Institute of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles) to develop lay Bible study leaders.

Perhaps the most dramatic changes were a renewed interest by theologians in clarifying how the teachings of the Church are so richly grounded in the Scriptures (DV 21), which Dei Verbum refers to as "the soul of theology" (DV 24) and a greater attention by scripture scholars to use more critical approaches, not simply permitted but insisted upon by the Church when they break open the scriptures for the faithful.

Through study and contemplation there is a growth in the understanding of writings handed down so long ago, a process led by the Holy Spirit (DV 8). At this document's insistence, we begin by taking seriously the differences between our own literature and culture, and that of the writers and first readers of the ancient Near East in the first century. In our first meeting with the text, the Church gives pride of place to how the ancients would have read the books of the Bible according to "the characteristic styles of feeling, speaking and narrating which prevailed at the time of the sacred writer" (DV 12).

To enter into that world we have to give serious attention to the culture and history of ancient Israel, Judea, and the Greco-Roman world. This requires us to understand their kinds of literature, and to avoid the temptation of saying that since a book in the Bible resembles, for example, "history," to us, that it must have been a history. "Holy Scripture must be read and interpreted in the sacred spirit in which it was written" (DV 12). This approach safeguards us from naïve fundamentalist approaches to interpreting the Bible.

For example, while the Church holds that the Gospels are historical in character, Vatican II also acknowledged what serious Scripture scholarship had earlier suggested: that there was a certain creativity involved, wherein "the sacred authors wrote the four Gospels, selecting some things from the many which had been handed on by word of mouth or in writing, reducing some of them to a synthesis, explaining some things in view of the situation of their churches and preserving the form of proclamation but always in such fashion that they told us the honest truth about Jesus" (DV 19).

Recognizing this, we are able to admit how the evangelists actually shaped their Gospels to respond to the needs of their communities' practical struggles and spiritual needs, to challenge them, and to encourage them in the ways of faith. Our own communities also strive to understand God's will for us and to grow in holiness.

Towards that end, it is appropriate in this 40th anniversary year of Dei Verbum to rededicate ourselves to appreciating, studying and living out God's word to us that all the world might come to know that same truth about Jesus and be saved.

Father Patrick Mullen is associate professor of Biblical Studies at St. John's Seminary, Camarillo. He was ordained in 1985 as a priest of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and has previously taught in the New Testament department at the Jesuit School of Theology, the Franciscan School of Theology and the Pacific Lutheran School of Theology in Berkeley.