McGrath Institute Blog

If you haven’t had a chance yet to make the McGrath Institute’s “Journey with The Saint John’s Bible,” there’s still time. This free, six-unit online course offers a glimpse into the history and production of illuminated manuscripts from thousands of years ago up to The Saint John’s Bible itself, a modern, hand-written, hand-illuminated Bible commissioned by Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota, and spearheaded by Welsh calligrapher Donald Jackson.

Editorial Note: This post is part of our #FaithAndScience series exploring the relationship between science and religion, and is adapted from the author's textbook Faith, Science, & Reason: Theology on the Cutting Edge, 2nd edition (Midwest Theological Forum, 2019). 

The Catholic Church offers an approach to the authority and truth of the Bible that does not lead to conflict between faith and science but that helps us understand the deepest meaning of the world God created. It is necessarily a “both-and” approach, one that respects the fact that Scripture contains both divine and human aspects. Let's summarize this approach briefly:

This Ash Wednesday, the McGrath Institute for Church Life will launch a free online course entitled “Journey with The Saint John’s Bible.” Each of six units will be released throughout the weeks of Lent, providing participants with a journey through Scripture, art, and practices of prayer both ancient and new. 

Today, September 30, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Jerome (ca. 345/7–420), one of the four great Latin doctors of the Church, along with Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory the Great. He is primarily known for translating the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures (both Old and New Testaments) into Latin. His translation, known as the Vulgate, was adopted as the official Latin translation of the Bible.

In the sacrament of baptism, which we recall at Easter, each of us received both a new identity as a child of God and a vocation to live a life transformed by our encounter with the Lord. We received these gifts not only for our own benefit, but also for the benefit of others.