Royal
Kingdom
(purple)
1 and 2 Samuel; 1 Kings (1–11)
Divided Kingdom
(black)
1 Kings (12–22); 2 Kings
Exile
(baby blue)
2 Kings (17, 23–25)
Return
(yellow)
Ezra; Nehemiah
Maccabean Revolt
(orange)
1 and 2 Maccabees
Messianic Fulfillment
(gold)
Luke
The Church
(white)
Acts of the Apostles
Our goal of understanding the big picture of Scripture means we will cover a lot of
Scriptural ground, from Genesis to Acts of the Apostles. As a result, we will focus on the
panoramic view of the narrative story of Scripture’s canon, looking at Scripture from the
perspective known among scholars as the “canonical approach.” In a sense, we are
following the method Pope Benedict XVI employed in
Jesus of Nazareth, in which he
focused on a canonical reading of the
life of Jesus, observing that “canonical exegesis—
reading the individual texts of the Bible in the context of the whole—is an essential
dimension of exegesis. It does not contradict historical-critical interpretation, but carries
it forward in an organic way toward becoming theology in the proper sense.”
1
Following Pope Benedict XVI’s lead,
Walking with God presents a unified reading of
Scripture following its final form as it is found in the Bible, recognizing
p 4
at the same
time that history is vitally important for understanding and studying God’s word.
Narrating the storyline of such a mammoth book puts tremendous constraints on what
can be covered. The academic books that delve into the history behind the Scripture’s
text, authorship, and dating are legion. The need now is for a readable
introduction to
what the Pope calls a canonical reading of Scripture’s story, a reading that simply aims at
putting forward what the
Catechism says is essential: a reading that looks for the unity of
Scripture and helps illuminate the unity of God’s plan.
1
Benedict XVI,
Jesus of Nazareth (New York: Doubleday, 2007), xix.
Jesus once observed that a scribe trained for the kingdom of God is like a steward who
takes out of his storehouse treasures both old and new (see Mt 13:52). In
Walking with
God, we
have sought to be such scribes, drawing ancient treasures from the writings of
the ancient Jewish rabbis as well as those of the Church Fathers. Our reading of Scripture
is also informed by history and the work of modern scholarship, to which we owe a great
debt, one we cannot note in the text or footnotes without encumbering this book and
thereby changing it from a popular text to an academic treatise.
In addition, in the spirit of Jesus’ depiction of the faithful scribe trained for the
kingdom, we seek to bring new treasures to our readers by giving throughout
the work a
fresh reading of the biblical narrative. This means that, at times, we present readings of
Scripture that may be somewhat new or original. In doing so, we do not claim that our
interpretation is the consensus of biblical scholars or the interpretation that faithful
Catholics must accept. Rather, we exercise the freedom in interpretation that the
Catholic tradition grants us, remaining faithful to St. Augustine’s guideline for
interpreting Scripture: As long as an interpretation does not
go against charity, it is, as
the great saint observes, “safe,” even if it is mistaken. At the same time, we have followed
Augustine’s admonishment that the danger that must be avoided is proposing an
interpretation that goes against charity or against the faith of the Church. Indeed, it is
because of our conviction that God’s word is living and active, an ocean whose depths are
never fully plumbed, that new and fresh readings are what
Jesus foresaw and, we hope,
what the Spirit inspires for God’s people.
We hope that
Walking with God will help you taste and see God’s word anew and
discover how enriching it is to explore the deep mysteries of Sacred Scripture.