How Has Catholic Doctrine Developed?
” In one sentence, the Church has grown in three ways in her possession and use of divine revelation entrusted to her by Christ: She appropriates to herself and integrates with God’s revelation whatever valid progress is made by human science and knowledge; she adapts her divinely revealed wisdom to the varied and changing needs of her faithful, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, she understands ever more deeply and clearly the once-and-for-all revelation she has received from God. Appropriation. In what sense may the Church be said to appropriate human science and knowledge and, in the process, grow in her grasp of divine revelation? The Church does this through her contact with the world of secular studies in all the fields of human endeavor. She has learned much from the science of language and linguistics, and her scholars have developed the Church’s understanding of Scripture immensely as a consequence. Take the single fact that Jesus habitually spoke Aramaic and only occa
