EVOLUTION AND THE BIBLE 



to certain facts touching on the foundations of the Christian 

 religion. Among these facts are "the special creation of man; 

 the formation of the first woman from the first man; the unity 

 of the human race/'^i The words were carefully chosen. The 

 Commission does not say, "immediate creation of the body of 

 the first man," but only "special creation of man." It says, 

 "formation of the first woman from the first man," but not 

 "from the body of the first man," and passes the "rib" over in 

 com.plete silence. This seems to be a sufficient invitation to 

 avoid stark realism. These decrees do not close the door to 

 further study, as was pointed out by J. M. Voste, secretary of 

 the Biblical Commission, in a letter to Cardinal Suhard of Paris 

 in 1948: "If the three official responses issued by the Biblical 

 Commission are understood and interpreted in the light of the 

 Supreme Pontiff's recommendation^^ ... these replies by no 

 means block the way to a further, truly scientific investigation 

 of these problems, in accord with the findings of the past forty 

 years. Consequently the Biblical Commission does not think 

 that there is need, ot least for the present, to promulgate new 

 decrees on these questions. "^ 3 



Taking advantage of the latitude extended by such direc- 

 tives, Catholic commentators have felt free to propose new 

 interpretations. Great advances have been made in biblical 

 criticism, particularly in the matter of literary forms employed 

 in the Bible. Because of this progress, the Commission itself 

 judged that it was unnecessary, "at least for the present," to 

 grant the requests of scholars who desired the abrogation of 

 the earlier decrees. 



Also an allocution of Pius XII to the Pontifical Academy 

 of Sciences in 1941 leaves the door open to further discussions 



^^ H. Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum, nos. 2121 — 2128, especially 

 no. 2123. 



^^ The reference is to Divino afflante Spiritu, AAS 35 (1943) 319, in 

 which the Pope states that "there is no reason why the Catholic 

 exegete, animated by an active and ardent love of his subject and 

 sincerely devoted to Holy Mother Church, should in any way be 

 deterred from coming to grips again and again with difficult questions 

 that have not yet been fully solved.'" Pius XII adds that "all should 

 abhor that intemperate zeal which judges that whatever is new should 

 for that very reason be resisted or viewed with suspicion." 



13 AAS 40 (1948) 46. 



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