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Faith, Reason and History in Early Modern Catholic Biblical Interpretation : Fr. Richard Simon and St. Thomas More

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Jeffrey L. Morrow
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Abstract

This article contrasts St. Thomas More's theoretical work on the role of faith and history in biblical exegesis with that of Fr. Richard Simon. I argue that, although Simon's work appears to be a critique of his more skeptical contemporaries like Hobbes and Spinoza, in reality he is carrying their work forward. I argue that More's union of faith and reason, theology and history, is more promising than Simon's for Catholic theological biblical exegesis.

Keywords

Thomas MoreRichard Simonfaithhistorybiblical exegesis
Type
Original Article
Information
New Blackfriars , Volume 96 , Issue 1066 , November 2015 , pp. 658 - 673
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 The Dominican Council

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References

1 For biographical information on Simon and on his biblical scholarship see Müller, Sascha, Richard Simon (1638–1712): Exeget, Theologe, Philosoph und Historiker (Bamberg: Echter, 2006)Google Scholar; Idem., Kritik und Theologie: Christliche Glaubens und Schrifthermeneutik nach Richard Simon (St. Ottilien: EOS, 2004)Google Scholar; Nichols, Francis W., ‘Richard Simon: Faith and Modernity’, in Christianity and the Stranger: Historical Essays, ed. Nichols, Francis W. (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995), pp. 115–68Google Scholar; and Reventlow, Henning Graf, ‘Richard Simon und seine Bedeutung für die kritische Erforschung der Bibel’, in Historische Kritik in der Theologie, ed. Schwaiger, Georg (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1980), pp. 11–36Google Scholar.

2 Simon, Richard, Histoire critique du Vieux Testament, suivi de Lettre sur l'inspiration: Nouvelle édition (Montrouge: Bayard, 2008)Google Scholar. All citations will be taken from this edition. Unless otherwise noted, all English translations in this article are my own.

3 Ibid., author's preface, 76–78. See comments in Woodbridge, John D., ‘Richard Simon's Reaction to Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus’, in Spinoza in der Frühzeit seiner religiösen Wirkung, ed. Gründer, Karlfried and Schmidt-Biggeman, Wilhelm (Heidelberg: Lanbert Schneider, 1984), pp. 201–26Google Scholar.

4 Müller, Sascha, ‘Grammatik und Wahrheit. Salomon Glassius (1593–1656) und Richard Simon (1638–1712) im Gespräch’, in Hebraistik—Hermenteutik—Homiletik: Die ‘Philologia Sacra’ im frühneuzeitlichen Bibelstudium, ed. Bultmann, Christoph and Danneberg, Lutz (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2011), p. 523Google Scholar; Gibert, Pierre, L'invention critique de la Bible: XVe – XVIIIe siècle (Paris: Gallimard, 2010), pp. 177–178Google Scholar and 198; Fleyfel, Antoine, ‘Richard Simon, critique de la sacralité biblique’, Revue d'histoire et de philosophie religieuses 88 (2008), pp. 473–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Stroumsa, Guy G., ‘Richard Simon: From Philology to Comparatism’, Archiv für Religionsgeschichte 3 (2001), p. 104CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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15 Simon, HCVT, 1.3, p. 119.

16 Ibid., 3.1, p. 543.

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18 Popkin, Richard H., ‘Bible Criticism and Social Science’, in Methodological and Historical Essays in the Natural and Social Sciences, ed. Cohen, Robert S. and Wartofsky, Marx W. (Dordrecht: Reidel, 1974), p. 349Google Scholar.

19 Barthélemy, Studies in the Text, p. 75.

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22 Hahn and Wiker, Politicizing the Bible, p. 407.

23 Pierre Gibert, introduction à la présente édition, Histoire critique du Vieux Testament, by Simon, ed. by Gibert, pp. 35–37; and Steinmann, Jean, Richard Simon et les origins de l'exégèse biblique (Paris: Brouwer, 1960), pp. 124–30Google Scholar.

24 Hahn and Wiker, Politicizing the Bible, p. 398.

25 Hazard, La crise de la conscience européenne, p. 140; and Shelford, ‘Of Sceptres and Censors’, p. 175. In a footnote, Shelford claims that, ‘At Bossuet's request, there were meetings between Simon and Pirot to develop a publishable version, but these efforts foundered when Simon walked out. Motivated by the possible repercussions of the seizure of an approved work, [Jean-Baptiste] Colbert [royal chancellor and thus royal censor] ordered another examination of L'histoire critique [sic]; once again, Simon refused to make the adjustments that were demanded’ (175 n. 62).

26 Perreau-Saussine, Emile, ‘Why Draw a Politics from Scripture? Bossuet and the Divine Right of Kings’, in Political Hebraism: Judaic Sources in Early Modern Political Thought, ed. Schochet, Gordon, Oz-Salzberger, Fania, and Jones, Meirav (Jerusalem: Shalem Press, 2008), pp. 90–104Google Scholar.

27 Champion, Justin A.I., ‘Père Richard Simon and English Biblical Criticism, 1680–1700’, in Everything Connects: In Conference with Richard H. Popkin: Essays in His Honor, ed. Force, James E. and Katz, David S. (Leiden: Brill, 1999), pp. 39–61Google Scholar.

28 Gibert, L'invention critique, pp. 317–322; and Woodbridge, John D., ‘German Responses to the Biblical Critic Richard Simon: From Leibniz to J.S. Semler’, in Historische Kritik und biblischer Kanon in der deutschen Aufklärung, ed. Reventlow, Henning Graf, Sparn, Walter, and Woodbridge, John (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1988), pp. 65–87Google Scholar.

29 Hahn and Wiker, Politicizing the Bible, p. 423.

30 Rodgers, Katherine Gardiner, ‘The Lessons of Gethsemane: De Tristitia Christi’, in The Cambridge Companion to Thomas More, ed. Logan, George M. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), pp. 243–251Google Scholar; Marc'hadour, Germain, ‘Scripture in the Dialogue’, in The Complete Works of St. Thomas More Volume 6: A Dialogue Concerning Heresies Part II: Introduction and Commentary, ed. Lawler, Thomas M.C., Marc'hadour, Germain, and Marius, Richard C. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981), pp. 494–526Google Scholar; Idem., The Bible in the Works of St. Thomas More, vols. 1–5 (Nieuwkoop: B. de Graaf, 1969–1972)Google Scholar; and Idem., Thomas More et la Bible: La place des livres saints dans son apologétique et sa spiritualité (Paris: J. Vrin, 1969)Google Scholar.

31 For biographical information on More see especially the essays by Caroline Barron, Cathy Curtis, James McConica, and Peter Marshall, in Cambridge Companion to Thomas More, ed. Logan; and Ackroyd, Peter, The Life of Thomas More (London: Chatto & Windus, 1998)Google Scholar.

32 On More's humanistic education and work, see, e.g., the essays by McConica, McCutcheon, and Curtis, in Cambridge Companion to Thomas More, ed. Logan; Daniel Kinney, introduction to The Complete Works of St. Thomas More Volume 15: In Defense of Humanism: Letter to Martin Dorp, Letter to the University of Oxford, Letter to Edward Lee, and Letter to a Monk, with a New Text and Translation of Historia Richard Tertii, ed. Daniel Kinney (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), pp. xvii-xcii [CW15]; Kristeller, Paul Oskar, ‘Thomas More as a Renaissance Humanist’, Moreana 65–66 (1980), pp. 5–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Camporeale, Salvatore I., ‘Da Lorenzo Valla a Tommaso Moro: Lo statuto umanistico della teologia’, Memorie domenicane 4 (1973), pp. 9–102Google Scholar; Hexter, J.H., ‘Introduction: Part I’, in The Complete Works of St. Thomas More Volume 4: Utopia, ed. Surtz, Edward S.J. and Hexter, J.H. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965), pp. xlv-lGoogle Scholar, lvii-lxxxi, and xcii-cv [CW4]; and Edward Surtz, S.J., ‘Introduction: Part II’, in CW4, pp. clvi-clxxix.

33 On his time with the Carthusians, and especially on his spiritual formation, see the discussion in Prada, Andrés Vázquez de, Sir Tomás Moro. Lord Canciller de Inglaterra, 8th ed. (Madrid: Rialp, 2004), pp. 70–90Google Scholar; Ackroyd, Life of Thomas More, pp. 96–111; and Wegemer, Gerard B., Thomas More: A Portrait of Courage (Princeton: Scepter, 2009 [1995]), pp. 10–17Google Scholar.

34 Berglar, Peter, Thomas More: A Lonely Voice Against the Power of the State (Princeton: Scepter, 2009 [1999]) p. 170Google Scholar.

35 Ibid, p. 195.

36 For accounts of his imprisonment, trial, and execution, see especially, all the essays in Thomas More's Trial by Jury: A Procedural and Legal Review with a Collection of Documents, ed. Kelly, Henry Ansgar, Karlin, Louis W., and Wegemer, Gerard B. (Rochester: Boydell, 2013 [2011])Google Scholar; and Peter Marshall, ‘The Last Years’, in Cambridge Companion to Thomas More, ed. Logan, pp. 116–38.

37 Eamon Duffy, ‘“The Common Knowen Multytude of Crysten Men”: A Dialogue Concerning Heresies and the Defence of Christendom’, in Cambridge Companion to Thomas More, ed. Logan, pp. 203–204; Gillespie, Michael Allen, The Theological Origins of Modernity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008), pp. 92–100CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Shuger, Debora Kuller, The Renaissance Bible: Scholarship, Sacrifice, and Subjectivity (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2010 [1994]), pp. 16–18Google Scholar, 22–24.

38 Wegemer, Thomas More, p. 97.

39 Duffy, ‘Common Knowen Multytude’, pp. 204–207 and 212.

40 Richard Rex, ‘Thomas More and the Heretics: Statesman or Fanatic?’ in Cambridge Companion to Thomas More, ed. Logan, pp. 97 and 100.

41 Duffy, ‘Common Knowen Multytude’, p. 197.

42 Kinney, introduction to CW15, lxxii-xcii, especially lxxviii and lxxviii-lxxix n. 6; and José Morales, “La formación espiritual e intelectual de Tomás Moro y sus contactos con la doctrina y obras de Santo Tomás de Aquino,” Scripta Theologica 6 (1974), pp. 439–89.

43 Latin text with English translation on opposing pages in CW15, pp. 2–127.

44 LT and ET in Ibid., pp. 130–49.

45 LT and ET in Ibid., pp. 152–95.

46 LT and ET in Ibid., pp. 198–311.

47 E.g., consider More's statement to the monk in question: ‘among many of you, the more exclusively something is yours, the more value you place on it. For this reason many prize their own ceremonies more than those of their religious house, their own house's ceremonies more than those of their order, and whatever is exclusive to their order more than everything that is common to all religious orders, while they prize all that pertains to the religious somewhat more than they do these lowly and humble concerns that are not only not private to them but are common to the whole Christian people, such as those plebeian virtues of faith, hope, charity, fear of God, humility, and others of similar character’ (Ibid, p. 281). More is not here condemning the religious state, but rather he is elevating the key Christian virtues that all Christians should strive to exemplify, like the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. The religious state, and monastic life, should be the settings where a religious, a monk, grows in such virtues. In the case More is discussing, in contrast, More accuses the monk of hiding vice behind a mere façade of virtue. For example, what is in fact defamation, an attack on one's reputation (in this case, against Erasmus), More states that the monk instead calls such defamation fraterna monitio, fraternal correction (Ibid, p. 266, lines 13–14).

48 Ibid, p. 291.

49 Berglar, Thomas More, p. 134.

50 Duffy, Eamon, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England c. 1400 – c. 1580 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005 [1992]), pp. 383–85, 397, 402–403, and 462CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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52 Berglar, Thomas More, p. 124.

53 More provides a concrete example of the centrality of uniting faith and reason. He recounts the incident, in which he took part, where a friar was teaching the laity that if they practiced a specific devotion to the Blessed Virgin they would be guaranteed salvation no matter what. When pushed to comment, More responded with, ‘first of all, nothing he had said in that entire sermon would seem really persuasive to anyone who did not accept the miracles that he had reported, a response which would not necessarily contravene Christian faith, and that even if those miracles were true they were hardly an adequate basis for the thesis at hand. For while you might easily find a prince who would sometimes pardon even his enemies at his mother's entreaty, no prince anywhere is foolish enough to promulgate a law which would encourage his own subjects to defy him by promising immunity to every traitor who propitiated his mother with a set form of flattery’ (CW15, p. 289). See Ibid, pp. 284–91 for the recounting of the entire incident. More makes clear that he is not disparaging the cult of the Blessed Virgin which he explicitly labels ‘a most wholesome devotion’ (Ibid, p. 291), but rather is just disparaging an abuse which abdicates reason. Such faith alone is not faith at all, but is more akin to superstition.

54 From his Letter to Martin Dorp, in Ibid, p. 59.

55 Berglar, Thomas More, p. 17.

56 Kinney, introduction to CW15, p. lxxxviii n. 1; and Gordon, Walter J., “The Monastic Achievement and More's Utopian Dream,” Medievalia et Humanistica 9 (1979), pp. 199–214Google Scholar.

57 Ratzinger, Joseph, Schriftsauslegung im Widerstreit (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1989), pp. 15–44Google Scholar.

58 Pope Benedict XVI, Verbum Domini, no. 35. Benedict, Pope XVI, “Verbum Domini,” Acta Apostolicae Sedis 102 (2010), pp. 713–716Google Scholar. English translation slightly modified from Vatican website.

59 Pope John Paul II, Fides et Ratio (1998), no. 76, in Acta Apostolicae Sedis 91 (1999), p. 64. English translation from Vatican website.