Leading Scholars Provide Catholic Commentaries for Ministry in the 21st Century

The CATHOLIC COMMENTARY ON SACRED SCRIPTURE combines outstanding biblical scholarship with lively faith to help Catholics interpret Scripture and apply it to Christian life today. In seventeen volumes, the series aims to provide readable, informative commentary on each book of the New Testament. The CCSS responds to the desire of Catholics to study the Bible in depth and in a way that integrates Scripture with Catholic doctrine, worship, and daily life. Because of this, it is an invaluable resource for pastoral ministers.

Central to the commentary’s approach are the theological principles taught by Vatican II for interpreting Scripture “in accord with the same Spirit by which it was written”—that is, interpreting Scripture in its canonical context and in the light of Catholic tradition and the analogy of faith (Dei Verbum, 12). The CCSS helps readers grasp the meaning of texts both in their historical and literary context and in their relationship to Catholic doctrine and life in the present.

The first two volumes published in November 2008 have met with an enthusiastic response among Catholics and some Protestants as well. Clergy and laity have praised the usefulness of The Gospel of Mark and First and Second Timothy, Titus for personal study and lectio divina, the spiritual reading of Sacred Scripture.