Scripture: Literary Revelation

(Found here)

“The moral and recreative levels of engagement with literature are indeed possible with the Sacred Scriptures. After all, the Scriptures are literature expressed in song, in narrative, and in discourse. Yet, the Scriptures are far more than mere literature, for they are far more than merely human writings. God is the primary author of this literature, not only in its providential production through the ages but especially in its divine inspiration, whereby it contains the assertions of the Holy Spirit himself.

To engage recreatively with the Scriptures is to enjoy their divinely-inspired, well-crafted images: the mellifluous flow of the Joseph cycle (Gen 37-50) and the curious recommendation to follow an ant in Proverbs 6:6-11, the poetic acrostic of Psalm 119’s legal encomium and St. Paul’s description of upright behavior as an armor of light in Romans 13:11-14. These literary elements all contribute to the well-crafted images that delight us on the recreative level.

As with merely natural literature, these images also lead to the moral level of literary engagement, where the reader perceives another dimension in these images—that of human experience, of the reader’s own self. The Joseph story presents the whole course of a life, the whole gamut of human existence, from the joys of filial love to the agony of fraternal betrayal. Yet the story is no mere biography. It is the story that finds resonance in every person’s life, like a literary mirror in which the mature reader sees something of his own self. So too with the other stories of the Scriptures. By engaging Scripture in this moral way, a reader recognizes the truth that one can indeed ‘go to the ant’ to learn wisdom (Prov 6:6), for the order exhibited in nature does truly reflect wisdom. Likewise, the law is not so much a wearisome constraint as a life-giving delight (Ps 119:33-40), for it frees its adherents to be truly themselves. Yet, even so, the human heart all too often risks falling from the vigil of light into the sleep of darkness described in Romans 13.

Still, the depth of the Sacred Scriptures does not stop at the moral level of engagement. There is, of course, the all-important fact of the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, unique to the Sacred Scriptures alone among all literary achievements. By the act of inspiration, the Holy Spirit has guided the composition of the Sacred Scriptures and has employed them to convey nothing other than the truth for our salvation. This divine literature thus allows for a unique mode of engagement, which does not require that a reader attain it only after the other two levels have been engaged, though such a progression is suitable and fitting. Rather, this engagement can occur at any time, since it is not primarily our act of engagement as readers. Here, the Holy Spirit acts in and through our hearts, using the images and moral intuitions that he himself has already providentially prepared in us, whether through our previous natural acts of reading or by a special infused grace. In this engagement, the Holy Spirit moves the reader beyond the domain of human nature and into the domain of eternal life. Such a domain is the realm of faith, hope, and love, where the reader knows, hopes in, and loves the Lord who himself has lovingly initiated this encounter.

In this supernatural engagement, the Holy Spirit reveals not only that the Sacred Scriptures are of recreative and moral interest but, most importantly, that they are specifically Christic; they are about Christ. The Holy Spirit grants the reader the supernatural, intellectual maturity of faith, by which the texts of Scripture are contextualized in the light of Christ. The natural, intellectual maturity necessary for the moral engagement with literature allows a reader to say, ‘This text is about me.’ But the Christic maturity allows a reader to say, ‘This text is about Christ.’ Now viewed in the light of faith, the well-crafted images that granted the reader delight through recreative engagement become supernaturally intelligible: what was once delightful but obscure is now newly visible, and so all the more delightful.

Consider, for example, the transformation that Augustine experienced in reading the Scriptures. When preparing for baptism, and at the suggestion of Ambrose, Augustine tried to read the book of Isaiah but soon put it aside. In his own words, Augustine was not well versed ‘in the dominical eloquence’ (‘in dominico eloquio’) in which to understand the prophet. Yet, Augustine would eventually come to see the book of Isaiah as pre-announcing the Gospel more openly than any other book. Only in the light of faith could Augustine realize that the eloquence of Scripture truly was dominicum—truly ‘about the Lord.’

Similarly, every detail recounted in Sacred Scripture is rendered re-examinable and re-interpretable in the light of faith. The seemingly disparate particulars of the text become the variegated features that reveal the one face of the Incarnate Lord Jesus. The Joseph story is thus not only the story of an everyman who is guided by God’s providence but also a story of the love to be fully expressed in the Paschal Mystery of the Lord Jesus, the Beloved Son who suffers to save his brothers. The insights of the proverbs are not only distillations of living human life well but are also verbal echoes of the words to be spoken by Incarnate Wisdom himself. The Psalms are not only prayers that express the full range of human experience but are also the prayers privileged to find their full concretization on the lips of the Incarnate Son praying to his Father. Paul’s exhortation to don the armor of light is far more than an exhortation to shine forth by upright conduct; it also communicates, through the images of armor, light, and Christ, that the Christian moral life is nothing short of being clothed with the radiant splendor of Christ.”
~Micah Kim