On paper, I’m technically a Cradle Catholic.
I was born into the faith and completed all my early-life sacraments: Baptism, which I don’t remember; First Holy Communion, the peak and end of my vocal career, performing my show-stopping solo ‘In His Time’; and Confirmation, which I later learned should not have been treated like a Catholic graduation. But even with all that very clear dedication, I still knew nothing about Catholicism. If you asked me what that dude Jesus’s deal was, my best guess was that I think he died for our sins… but then again, I think he came back, and who could really say where he went after that.
Suffice to say, I had no idea what to expect when opening the bible for the first time. Sure, I figured there would be a lot of “be a good person” kind of talk. But after 160+ days of jotting down meticulous notes for at least a full hour of my mornings, I came to understand that there was sooooo much more to it than I had yet to appreciate.
My Hot Take: The Bible is the OG Self-Help book, with a carefully crafted philosophy at its core meant to heal both the collective and the individual.
It does the following:
- Diagnoses problems
- Offers a perspective for overcoming hang-ups that may be stopping the individual/collective from achieving a desired outcome
- Oriented to inspire, motivate, and advocate for personal growth
My Interpretation
Ascension Press has a wonderful program that includes both a study plan and a pre-recorded podcast hosted by Fr. Mike Schmitz, who not only reads the chapters with you, but also takes the time to explain them and offer the Catholic perspective, theological basis, and historical context. Because there is much to unpack in each book, the main purpose of this particular program is to help readers understand the storyline of salvation history, connecting all the events of the Bible from beginning to end. If your goal is to read the Bible, or to at least get more familiar with it, I highly recommend this program. But with that said, personally, I am more interested in its overarching philosophy.
First, let’s get our definitions aligned.
Philosophy: The study of ideas about knowledge, truth, the nature and meaning of life, etc. (according to Merriam Webster’s simple definition)
The Catholic Bible: A collection of 73 books that covers the story of “Salvation History.” It is subdivided into its 8 literary genres.
Old Testament: 46 Books
- Books of Laws (Pentateuch)
- Historical books
- Wisdom books
- Prophetic books
New Testament: 27 Books
- Gospels
- Acts
- Epistles/Letters
- Revelations
Shifting Between Tones in Each Genre
By the time I finished the books of Law — Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy — my love for the teachings had started to cement. I felt enlightened by the idea that morality is not always intuitive. Gray areas exist, and our relationship with God gives us a logical framework for discerning right from wrong. (I will dive deeper into this point in a later post).
But then something changed — my heart started to harden as I moved into the books of History, more specifically, the book of Judges. One story after another was the same disappointing tale over and over again: God raises up a leader to respond to a crisis, who then disobeys God’s guidance by letting their personal ambitions, fears, or desires take precedence over their role in serving the people.
What the fudge? I thought. What was the take-away of all these stories? That our leaders will always be corrupt and fail us? That even the people God appoints aren’t protected from Satan’s sticky grasp? What exactly are we supposed to do with this information?
Eventually, I reached the first Messianic Check Point, where I learned the story of Jesus. Here’s what he’s all about: Jesus is the Son of God who was sent down from the Heavens to address this endless cycle of despair. Here is the general framework he advocates for his followers:
Self-reflection: Sure, we may be a victim of our circumstance, but we must reflect honestly — did we allow our hearts to harden in the face of cruelty? Did we justify our poor reply because of how we were wronged? How we respond to the broken world around us is still our responsibility, no matter the cause.
Repentance: We think of this simply as sincere regret, but Jesus teaches this as a “conversion of heart,” an inner transformation that refocuses our intentions. For example: The Sadducees and Pharisees (the Jewish leaders during Jesus’ time) were so concerned with upholding the letter of the law, that they completely lost sight of its deeper purpose — justice, mercy, and love. We often do this in our lives — losing sight of what truly matters. For this, we repent by refocusing our intentions.
Living Virtuously: Because of the human condition, we may be dispositioned to fall back into bad habits. Jesus helps us avoid this by nurturing a growth mindset. It’s about practicing virtues like humility, patience, charity — by building habits of prayer, ongoing self-examination, and living out our faith in concrete actions. Building our relationship with God is the discipline that helps us grow and overcome our shortcomings.
The Bible in Three Parts
My conclusion is simply this: there is a deep need for us to understand how we are broken (the purpose of books like Judges). Here is my interpretation of the Catholic Philosophy, separating the Bible into three lessons:
- The Books of Law — The Collective: God’s fight for our Liberty
- The Books of History, Poetry, and Wisdom — The Individual: acceptance of our internal brokenness
- The Books of the New Testament — The Road to Redemption: accountability, humility, and hope
Again, there is a lot to unpack here. In these next few weeks, I’ll dive into each philosophical section to explain in more detail how reading the Bible in its entirety supports the teachings of Jesus’s framework.