The Vatican II document, Dei Verbum, has given rise to a new interest in the role of the Bible in its mission to bring the world to Christ. In the Church’s living tradition, it has launched a contemporary movement that places great emphasis on Scrip...
The Vatican II document, Dei Verbum, has given rise to a new interest in the role of the Bible in its mission to bring the world to Christ. In the Church’s living tradition, it has launched a contemporary movement that places great emphasis on Scripture as the supreme rule of faith. The teaching of the Council announced an essential connection between all ecclesial acts and the biblical text. Indeed, Dei Verbum declared the Bible as the main source of the development of mature faith. Accordingly, since the Council, the practice of referencing the Bible in and outside of liturgy has enjoyed a wide revival and expansion.
This new emphasis on the crucial role of the Bible in all aspects of life has given impetus to a “New Evangelization,” a renewal movement, which under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, has been experienced throughout the universal Church. Although it began with Vatican Council II, the Twelfth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops in the Vatican gave further emphasis to the movement. Meeting from October 5th to 26th 2008, it had as its theme, “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church.” That gathering of the world’s bishops further expanded the new teaching to reinforce its impact on the internal and external workings of the Church. What the Synod did was to point out fundamental approaches to a rediscovery of God’s Word in the life of the Church as a renewal wellspring, recognizing the Word as the center of all ecclesial activities. The energy of this newly dynamic movement has spread around the globe. It has since been adopted as the core of all pastoral policy in every diocese, including the Korean Catholic Church. The movement has even overflowed into the secular world. The Biblical Apostolate of the United Nations Organization, “The Catholic Biblical Federation,” mentions this thrust as the central axis of such “new evangelization” in its various pastoral activities that have the Bible as their center.
Indeed, the Church is built upon the Word of God. It was born by the Word and is living by help of the Word because the People of God have always found their strength through the Word. This thesis presents as a major premise that the mission of the Church today is to be the catalyst of a “new evangelization,” which has as a major impetus the “biblical apostolate.” It deals with the direction and vision of pastoral policy for the “new evangelization” as a “biblical apostolate.” It is based on the ecclesial teaching that the Word of the Lord is not only the center of all liturgical actions, but of all education for faith and all pastoral activity. Therefore, if the Church’s Good News, in other words, the Gospel, is the core of evangelization, the “biblical apostolate” should be given more emphasis than other activities of the Church. That apostolate is defined as all the Church’s outreach that is related to the Word of God.
Obviously, the Church has always striven to enter ever more deeply into her essential aspects and proclaim them to the world. Besides identifying the new thrust initiated by the Vatican Council, this thesis also strives to present the right direction for the “new evangelization” and to prepare the ground for various biblical pastoral activities through a better understanding of the implications of a “biblical apostolate.” It explores and expands those implications through the lens of the “biblical apostolate.” Finally, it identifies ways in which the Korean Church, through its liturgies and organizations, can connect with this new biblical apostolate in the Church.