The ReverendThe Reverend is a style most often used as a prefix to the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. The Reverend is correctly called a style but is often and in some dictionaries called a...
Raymond Edward Brown, S.S. (May 22, 1928 - August 8, 1998), was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Roman CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
priestA priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
, a member of the Sulpician Fathers and a major Biblical scholar of his era. He was regarded as a specialist concerning the hypothetical ‘Johannine community’, which he speculated contributed to the authorship of the
Gospel of JohnThe Gospel According to John , commonly referred to as the Gospel of John or simply John, and often referred to in New Testament scholarship as the Fourth Gospel, is an account of the public ministry of Jesus...
, and he also wrote influential studies on the birth and death of
JesusJesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
. Brown was professor emeritus at the Protestant
Union Theological SeminaryUnion Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...
(UTS) in
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, where he taught for 29 years. He was the first Roman Catholic professor to gain tenure there, where he earned a reputation as a superior lecturer.
Brown was one of the first Roman Catholic scholars to apply historical-critical analysis to the Bible. As Biblical criticism developed among Protestants in the 19th century, the Roman Catholic Church opposed this scholarship and essentially forbade it in 1893. In 1943, however, the Church issued guidelines by which Catholic scholars could investigate the Bible historically. Brown called this encyclical the "Magna Carta of biblical progress." Vatican II further supported higher criticism, which, Brown felt, vindicated his approach.
Brown remains controversial among traditionalist Catholics because of their claim that he denied the
inerrancyBiblical inerrancy is the doctrinal position that the Bible is accurate and totally free of error, that "Scripture in the original manuscripts does not affirm anything that is contrary to fact." Some equate inerrancy with infallibility; others do not.Conservative Christians generally believe that...
of the whole of Scripture and cast doubt on the historical accuracy of numerous articles of the Catholic faith. His centrist views especially angered conservatives when he questioned whether the virginal conception of Jesus could be proven historically. He was regarded as occupying the center ground in the field of biblical studies, opposing the literalism found among many fundamentalist Christians while not carrying his conclusions as far as many other scholars.
Biography
Born in New York, the son of Robert H. Brown and Loretta Brown, Raymond studied at the Catholic University of America where he received a BA in 1948 and MA in 1949 as a Basselin scholar. In 1951 he joined the scholarly
Society of Saint-SulpiceThe Society of Saint-Sulpice is a Catholic Society of Apostolic Life named for Eglise Saint-Sulpice, Paris, in turn named for St. Sulpitius the Pious. Typically, priests become members of the Society of St. Sulpice only after ordination and some years of pastoral work. Uniquely, Sulpicians retain...
following his STB from
St. Mary's Seminary and UniversitySt. Mary's Seminary and University is a Roman Catholic seminary in Baltimore, Maryland; it was the first seminary founded in the United States of America.-History:...
. In 1953 he was ordained a priest in the diocese of
St. AugustineThe Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine is a diocese of the Catholic Church's Latin Church in the U.S. state of Florida. Part of the Ecclesiastical Province of Miami, it covers much of North Florida, including the cities of St. Augustine, Jacksonville, and Gainesville. The bishop's seat is the...
, Florida. He earned a Ph.D. at the Johns Hopkins University where one of his advisors was Professor William F. Albright.
Brown was appointed in 1972 to the
Pontifical Biblical CommissionThe Pontifical Biblical Commission is an organism established within the Roman Curia to ensure the proper interpretation and defense of Sacred Scripture.-The Commission 1901-1971:...
and again in 1996. He was the Auburn Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies at the Protestant
Union Theological SeminaryUnion Theological Seminary in the City of New York is a preeminent independent graduate school of theology, located in Manhattan between Claremont Avenue and Broadway, 120th to 122nd Streets. The seminary was founded in 1836 under the Presbyterian Church, and is affiliated with nearby Columbia...
in
New YorkNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
where he taught from 1971 to 1990, when he became professor emeritus. He served as president of the Catholic Biblical Association, the Society of Biblical Literature (1976-7) and the Society of New Testament Studies (1986-7). He was a
Roman CatholicThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
priest in the diocese of
BaltimoreThe Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. The archdiocese comprises the City of Baltimore as well as Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, and Washington Counties in Maryland...
,
MarylandMaryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. Widely regarded as one of America's preeminent biblical scholars, Brown was awarded 24 honorary doctoral degrees by universities in the USA and Europe, many from Protestant institutions.
He died at St. Patrick's
SeminaryA seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
,
Menlo Park, CaliforniaMenlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
. Cardinal Mahony hailed him as "the most distinguished and renowned Catholic biblical scholar to emerge in this country ever" and his death, the cardinal said, was "a great loss to the Church."
Scholarly views
Brown was one of the first Catholic scholars in the United States to use the historical-critical method to study the Bible. In 1943, reversing the approach that had existed since
Providentissimus DeusProvidentissimus Deus, "On the Study of Holy Scripture", was an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII on 18 November 1893.In it, he reviewed the history of Bible study from the time of the Church Fathers to the present, spoke against the errors of the Rationalists and "higher critics", and outlined...
fifty years earlier, the encyclical
Divino Afflante SpirituDivino Afflante Spiritu is an encyclical letter issued by Pope Pius XII on September 30, 1943. It inaugurated the modern period of Roman Catholic Bible studies by permitting the limited use of modern methods of biblical criticism. The Catholic bible scholar Raymond E...
expressed approval of historical-critical methods. For Brown, this was a "Magna Carta for biblical progress". In 1965, at the Second Vatican Council, the Church moved further in this direction, adopting the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation
Dei VerbumDei Verbum was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965, following approval by the assembled bishops by a vote of 2,344 to 6.23...
, instead of the conservative schema "On the Sources of Revelation" that originally had been submitted. While it stated that Scripture teaches "solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation," Brown points out the ambiguity of this statement, which opened the way for a new interpretation of inerrancy by shifting from a literal interpretation of the text towards a focus on "the extent to which it conforms to the salvific purpose of God". He saw this as the Church 'turning the corner' on inerrancy, while adopting a face-saving wording: "the Roman Catholic Church does not change her official stance in a blunt way. Past statements are not rejected but are requoted with praise and then reinterpreted at the same time. ... What was really going on was an attempt gracefully to retain what was salvageable from the past and to move in a new direction at the same time". While the document cited the two earlier encyclicals, it was clear to observers that much had changed. The Second Vatican Council, one scholar observed, “raised biblical exegesis from the status of second-class citizenship to which it had been reduced among Catholics by an overreaction to the Protestant claim for its autonomy”.
New Testament Christology
In a detailed 1965 article in the journal
Theological Studies examining whether Jesus was ever called "God" in the New Testament, Brown concluded that "Even the fourth Gospel never portrays Jesus as saying specifically that he is God" and "there is no reason to think that Jesus was called God in the earliest layers of New Testament tradition." He argued that, "Gradually, in the development of Christian thought God was understood to be a broader term. It was seen that God had revealed so much of Himself in Jesus that God had to be able to include both Father and Son."
Thirty years later, Brown revisited the issue in an introductory text for the general public, writing that in "three reasonably clear instances in the NT [Hebrews 1:8-9, John 1:1, 20:28] and in five instances that have probability, Jesus is called God", a usage Brown regarded as a natural development of early references to Jesus as "Lord".
Gospel of John
The Gospel of John is in two sections, which Brown labelled the "Book of Signs" and the "Book of Glory." The Book of Signs recounts Jesus' public miracles, which are called signs. The Book of Glory comprises Jesus' private teaching to his disciples, his crucifixion, and his resurrection.
Brown identifies three layers of text in John: 1) an initial version Brown considers based on personal experience of Jesus; 2) a structured literary creation by the evangelist which draws upon additional sources; and 3) the edited version that readers know today (Brown 1979).
Support
Brown has been described as “the premier Johannine scholar in the English-speaking world”. Terrence T. Prendergast stated that “for nearly 40 years Father Brown caught the entire church up into the excitement and new possibilities of scriptural scholarship." Much of Brown's work was given a
Nihil obstatNihil obstat is a declaration of no objection to an initiative or an appointment....
and an
ImprimaturAn imprimatur is, in the proper sense, a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement.-Catholic Church:...
(the "nihil obstat" is a statement by an official reviewer, appointed by a bishop, that "nothing stands in the way" of a book being given an imprimatur; the "imprimatur," which must normally be issued by a bishop of the diocese of publication, is the official endorsement — "let it be printed" — that a book contains nothing damaging to Catholic faith and morals). Brown was the expert appointed to review and provide the nihil obstat for
The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, the standard basic reference book for Catholic Biblical studies, of which he was one of the editors and to which he himself contributed, as did dozens of other Catholic scholars. The biblical scholar Ben Witherington dedicated his book
The Jesus Quest to Brown (along with
John P. MeierJohn Paul Meier is a Biblical scholar and Catholic priest. He attended St. Joseph's Seminary and College , Gregorian University [Rome] , and the Biblical Institute [Rome]...
).
Joseph Ratzinger, now
Pope Benedict XVIBenedict XVI is the 265th and current Pope, by virtue of his office of Bishop of Rome, the Sovereign of the Vatican City State and the leader of the Catholic Church as well as the other 22 sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches in full communion with the Holy See...
, who has written presenting the infancy narratives and John’s Gospel as historically reliable, was personally complimentary of Brown and his scholarship, and has been quoted as saying he "would be very happy if we had many exegetes like Father Brown".
Criticism
Brown's work was controversial among traditionalists who objected to the elements of his work that they regarded as casting doubt on the historical accuracy of numerous articles of the Catholic faith. His critics included Cardinal Lawrence Shehan and Father
Richard W. GilsdorfFr. Richard Gilsdorf was a Catholic priest who played a role in the doctrinal battles that followed the Second Vatican Council. A committed opponent of fellow Scripture scholar Raymond E. Brown, he wrote a number of articles for conservative Catholic publications on the issues of the day...
, who described Brown's work as "a major contribution to the befogged wasteland of an 'American Church' progressively alienated from its divinely constituted center.”
Other writers, on the other hand, have criticized Brown for excessive caution, for what they saw as his unwillingness to acknowledge the radical implications of the critical methods he was using.
Frank KermodeSir John Frank Kermode was a highly regarded British literary critic best known for his seminal critical work The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction, published in 1967 ....
, in his review of
The Birth of the Messiah, accused Brown of being too eager to secure the imprimatur of the Catholic Church;
Geza VermesGéza Vermes or Vermès is a British scholar of Jewish Hungarian origin and writer on religious history, particularly Jewish and Christian. He is a noted authority on the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient works in Aramaic, and on the life and religion of Jesus...
has described Brown as "the primary example of the position of having your cake and eating it'."
Works
His total of 25 books on biblical subjects include:
- The Sensus Plenior of Sacred Scripture, Baltimore: St. Mary's University, 1955. This was his dissertation in partial fulfillment of his Doctor of Sacred Theology
The Doctor of Sacred Theology is the final theological degree in the pontifical university system of the Catholic Church....
. Lunde notes that Brown has done much to define the term sensus pleniorIn Latin, the phrase sensus plenior means "a fuller sense of.". This phrase in Biblical exegesis, is used to describe the deeper meaning intended by God but not intended by the human author. Walter C. Kaiser notes that F. Andre Fernandez coined the term in 1927, but it was popularized by Raymond E....
and that he has had an enormous influence on the debate concerning the term.
- New Testament Essays, 1965.
- "The Gospel According to John", in Anchor Bible, 1966 and 1970
- Peter in the New Testament (coauthor), 1973.
- Mary and the New Testament (coeditor), 1978.
- The Community of the Beloved Disciple, New York: Paulist Press, 1979
- The Critical Meaning of the Bible, New York: Paulist Press, 1981
- New Jerome Biblical Commentary (coeditor), 1990
- Responses to 101 Questions on the Bible, New York: Paulist Press, 1991, ISBN 0-8091-4251-1
- Death of the Messiah, 1994.
- An Introduction to New Testament Christology, 1994. Preview
- An Introduction to the New Testament, 1997 Description and reviews in Library Journal, First Things, and Faith and Mission.
- Birth of the Messiah 1998, with a reappraisal of the infancy gospels.
External links