Reverence for Scripture

Readers of this newsletter are well aware that the Firmiter of Lateran IV contains the most important conciliar definition of the dogma of creation in the history of the Catholic Church. In the document Creation and Time and in the article at this link on the Kolbe website, we have shown that the Firmiter, rightly expounded, excludes theistic evolution or progressive creation, i.e., creation being spread out over long ages of time. With the rise of modernism within Catholic academia at the end of the nineteenth century orthodox Catholic theologians tended to seek authoritative Magisterial statements from Popes or Councils that explicitly upheld traditional teachings on faith and morals, like the indissolubility of marriage, that were being challenged by modernist scholars. In response to theistic evolution and progressive creation, however, the first line of defense, even as late as the end of the nineteenth century, was NOT an appeal to Lateran IV as it had been traditionally understood, because, as we will demonstrate in this newsletter, even at that late date faithful theologians still appealed directly to the inerrant text of the sacred history of Genesis as the source of the Church’s teaching on the supernatural creation of all things at the beginning of time.