Starting Bible Study With A Former Catholic
Starting Bible Study With A Former Catholic
The Reformers insisted that Scripture alone, not tradition or ecclesiastical authority, must govern Christian belief and practice. Calvin describes the evangelists as writing "in a mean and humble style" yet treating "heavenly mysteries beyond the capacity" of human invention [8], emphasizing that the biblical text itself carries divine authority independent of institutional mediation. This principle shapes how one approaches Bible study with someone transitioning from a Catholic framework: the goal is to cultivate direct engagement with the text rather than dependence on external interpretive authorities.
Establishing the Posture of a Learner
Hodge notes that Christ required his disciples to "become as little children" to enter the kingdom, and Paul made it "the indispensable condition" for those steeped in Greek or oriental philosophy "that they should renounce philosophy as a guide in matters of religion" [2]. This applies equally to those formed by any theological system. The former Catholic must approach Scripture with what Augustine calls "salutary modesty" alongside attention to its "wonderful loftiness" [6], setting aside prior assumptions about what the text must mean in order to discover what it actually says.
Calvin sharply distinguishes genuine docility—"a desire of further progress"—from "the gross ignorance in which those sluggishly indulge who are contented with the implicit faith of the Papists" [9]. The former Catholic has often been taught to defer interpretive questions to the magisterium. Bible study must therefore cultivate active reading: asking what the text says, comparing Scripture with Scripture, and allowing the Spirit-inspired Old Testament to illuminate the Gospel and vice versa [7].
Practical Method
Begin with straightforward narrative passages that require minimal theological apparatus. Hodge observes that theological knowledge progresses gradually, both in individuals and in the Church collectively: "When he was a child, he thought as a child. As he grew in years, he grew in knowledge of the Bible" [4]. Avoid immediately tackling contested doctrines like baptismal regeneration [3] or the sacraments [1], which will trigger prior catechetical reflexes. Instead, establish the habit of reading the text itself, noting its claims, and tracing its internal logic. The business of the student, as Hodge insists, is "not to set forth his system of truth...but to ascertain and exhibit what is God's system" [5].
Sources
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 68: this sacrament demands should exist in the heart, without producing supreme love and gratitude to Christ, and the fixed purpose to forsake all sin and to live devoted to his service. Our Church, therefore, teaches that it is required of them who would worthily partake of the Lord’s Supper, that they examine themselves, of their knowledge to discern the Lord’s body, of their faith to feed upon Him, of their repentance, love, and new obedience. It is, however, not to be inferred from this that a man must be assured that he is a true believe”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, section 19: reason or wisdom, in order to receive the wisdom of God. Our Lord told his disciples that unless they were converted and became as little children, they could not enter into the kingdom of God. And the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Corinthians, and in those addressed to the Ephesians and Colossians, that is, when writing to those imbued with the Greek and with the oriental philosophy, made it the indispensable condition of their becoming Christians, that they should renounce philosophy as a guide in matters of religion, and receive ”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 65: 186-189. All the arguments against the doctrine in question drawn from the general teachings of the Bible are, of course, arguments against the traditionary interpretation of this particular passage. Another passage on which special reliance is placed as a support of the doctrine of baptismal regeneration is Titus, iii. 5. The Apostle there says, God saves us “by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” By “the washing of regeneration” is understood baptism; and the Apostle is understood to assert two things, first, t”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, section 37: effected by a continual and gradual progress. The same progress has taken place in theological knowledge. Every believer is conscious of such progress in his own experience. When he was a child, he thought as a child. As he grew in years, he grew in knowledge of the Bible. He increased not only in the compass, but in the clearness, order, and harmony of his knowledge. This is just as true of the Church collectively as of the individual Christian. It is, in the first place, natural, if not inevitable, that it should be so. The Bible, altho”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 1, section 8: sin, of liberty, of obligation, from the facts of the Bible. He should remember that his business is not to set forth his system of truth (that is of no account), but to ascertain and exhibit what is God’s system, which is a matter of the greatest moment. If he cannot believe what the facts of the Bible assume to be true, let him say so. Let the sacred writers have their doctrine, while he has his own. To this ground a large class of modern exegetes and theologians, after a long struggle, have actually come. They give what they regard as t”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 3: Augustine — On the Holy Trinity — CHAP. 8.--OF THE METHOD TO BE PURSUED IN CATECHISING THOSE WHO HAVE HAD A LIBERAL EDUCATION. (part 2): and of skillfully applied diligence on the part of these expounders;(3) and, in the case of the canonical Scriptures, commending above all the most salutary modesty (of language) displayed alongside their wonderful loftiness (of subject); while, in those other productions you notice, in accordance with the 291 characteristic faculty of each several writer, a style of a more sonorous and, as it were more rounded eloquence adapted to minds that are”
- 1 Corinthians (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on 1 Corinthians 2:13: also--We not only know by the Holy Ghost, but we also speak the "things freely given to us of God" (Co1 2:12). which the Holy Ghost teacheth--The old manuscripts read "the Spirit" simply, without "Holy." comparing spiritual things with spiritual--expounding the Spirit-inspired Old Testament Scripture, by comparison with the Gospel which Jesus by the same Spirit revealed [GROTIUS]; and conversely illustrating the Gospel mysteries by comparing them with the Old Testament types [CHRYSOSTOM]. So the Greek word is translated, "comparing" (Co2 10:”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 24: hence Augustine justly calls them the librarians of the Christian Church, because they supplied us with books of which they themselves had not the use. 11. When we proceed to the New Testament, how solid are the pillars by which its truth is supported! Three evangelists give a narrative in a mean and humble style. The proud often eye this simplicity with disdain, because they attend not to the principal heads of doctrine; for from these they might easily infer that these evangelists treat of heavenly mysteries beyond the capacity o”
- CCEL (Reformed) “John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, section 57: feeling. But this docility, with a desire of further progress, is widely different from the gross ignorance in which those sluggishly indulge who are contented with the implicit faith of the Papists. If Paul severely condemns those who are “ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” how much more sharply ought those to be rebuked who avowedly affect to know nothing? 6. The true knowledge of Christ consists in receiving him as he is offered by the Father, namely, as invested with his Gospel. For, as he is ”