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R e v i e w s
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This Rock
Volume 11, Number 1
 January 2000 
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Gospels Under Attack
Let’s face it: some of those attacking the
gospels today are men and women with clerical collars around
their necks. A while ago, I produced an audio tape defending
the historical reliability of the gospels. You can still get it from
Catholic Answers (item CA089, "Can You Trust the
Gospels?" $5.95). However, you can only fit so much
onto an audio tape. When people ask me for a more in-depth
source, I usually recommend Craig Blomberg’s Historical
Reliability of the Gospels, which is the best
currently-in-print guide to the subject that I know.
Since the
beginning of the Church Christians have known that the
gospels as we have them possess certain difficulties that must
be solved. That’s par for the course. Jesus himself was in no
hurry to make things fully clear to all people; that’s why he
used parables, so one would have to mentally work at it to
understand and accept his teaching (Matt. 13:10–14). So it’s
no surprise when we find that Scripture, as the word of God
written, poses similar challenges.
Blomberg’s first chapter, "Traditional approaches to the
reliability of the gospels," surveys the history of how
Christians have attempted to solve these difficulties, from early
harmonies of the gospels, like Tatian’s Diatesseron, to
the rise of Bible critics who began the current craze of
gospel-bashing. The chapter also introduces the so-called
"Synoptic problem" of how Matthew, Mark, and
Luke are related.
Chapter
two, "New methods in gospel study," sorts out for
the reader the gaggle of confusing new terms one is bound to
encounter in modern biblical scholarship. Ever wonder what
the difference is between "form criticism" and
"redaction criticism"? Blomberg will tell you. He also
takes the headache out of others that may be flung in your
face by a dissident director of religious education (e.g.,
midrash, "the new hermeneutic,"
structuralism, post-structuralism).
Chapter
three goes to the heart of modern attacks on the gospels:
"Miracles."Most so-called "gospel
criticism" springs from a fundamentally anti-miraculous
bias. Since the gospels report multiple miracles, anyone who
won’t believe in them is bound to say that the gospels are
historically unreliable. In this chapter Blomberg vindicates the
miraculous against scientific, philosophical, and historical
objections.
Chapter
four, "Contradictions among the Synoptics?"
tackles another favorite gambit of Bible critics—trying to pit
Matthew, Mark, and Luke against one another. Chapter five,
"Problems in the Gospel of John," explores the
parallel strategy critics use: Pitting Matthew, Mark, and Luke
against John.
In these
two chapters, Blomberg surveys a variety of different
techniques for showing what proposed contradictions and
differences do not challenge the historical reliability of the
works. In so doing he clears up many individual puzzles that
people wonder about: why, for example, one gospel will
mention two people present at an event while another
mentions only one person; why the gospels sometimes present
events in different order; or why they record Jesus as having
said slightly different things depending on which account you
are reading. Blomberg clears these up masterfully.
Chapter
six, "The Jesus tradition outside the gospels," deals
with a wide variety of matters outside the gospels proper.
These include how to square the account of Judas’ death in
Acts with the account in Matthew, testimony regarding Jesus
and early Christianity from Jewish and Greco-Roman sources,
the writings of the apostolic fathers, Gnostic and other
apocryphal gospels, and the image of Jesus presented in the
remainder of the New Testament.
The last
chapter, "Final questions on historical method,"
considers issues relating to the proper use of the historian’s
craft as it pertains to the gospels. Blomberg considers the
question of what rules of historical writing govern the manner in
which the evangelists wrote, on whom the burden of proof rests
if one wants to challenge something in the gospels, and what
are appropriate and inappropriate criteria when weighing
historical matters in connection with the gospels.
Blomberg
is not Catholic. He’s an Evangelical, but, in this case, that’s a
plus. There aren’t any books by Catholics I’m aware of that
defend the historical integrity of the gospels as well as this one
does and in the depth that this one does. While many Catholic
books today pooh-pooh the idea that Scripture contains no
error, Blomberg is committed to biblical inerrancy, and he goes
into more depth than the few inerrantist Catholic works (e.g.,
the late William Most’s Free From All Error, which is
good but short).
The
Historical Reliability of the Gospels is must reading for
anyone in a parish Bible study where someone is trying to
undermine the historical integrity of the gospels.
—James Akin
The Historical Reliability of the Gospels
By Craig
Blomberg
Inter-Varsity Press
268 pages
$15.99
Available from Catholic Answers (888-291-8000)
Item: B0244
Surpassing Credulity
We need a good book on both extraordinary
demonic activity—since there has been so much of it
lately—and on exorcism, now that the new rite of exorcism has
been released. Fr. Gabriel Fr. Amorth’s An Exorcist Tells
His Story is probably not that book.
Fr.
Amorth is the chief exorcist for the Diocese of Rome. He
makes the astounding claim to have performed 30,000
exorcisms over nine years (129), a number that surpasses the
credulity of even the most favorably disposed reader. And
though this particular claim appears late in the book, a careful
reader will encounter various other problems throughout.
Fr.
Amorth’s book will not fare well under scholarly, or even under
commonly thoughtful, analysis. For starters, there are no
footnotes, no bibliography, and no index. Save for a small
number of textual references, there is no way to check most of
Fr. Amorth’s multitudinous assertions, even many that he
claims are well-documented. And as for the personal, real-life
life episodes described by Fr. Amorth, they are frequently
unconvincing.
Consider
one of three examples of a "curse" narrated by Fr.
Amorth (130–131): A father cursed his son at birth and
continued to curse him as long as the son lived at home. The
son, says Fr. Amorth, "suffered from every conceivable
misfortune"—poor health, unemployment, marriage
difficulties, and health problems with his own children. But how
does any of this prove the existence of a curse? These sad
facts seem readily explainable as the common manifestations
of an emotionally battered child. With dads like that, who
needs devils?
Inconsistencies are common in Fr. Amorth’s book. For
example, he correctly notes that canon law requires priests to
obtain express permission to perform an exorcism and that
such a solemn rite should be applied only after diligent
examination (see canon 1172). Yet Fr. Amorth describes case
after case of people who seem to appear on his doorstep, and
he immediately sets about performing an exorcism (70, 77, 88,
158–159). Even accepting Fr. Amorth’s claim that only 94 of
his 30,000 exorcisms represented full-blown possession (the
only scenario for which exorcism is canonically authorized),
that equates to nearly one case per month that had to be
thoroughly examined and processed over nine years, a
daunting feat to say the least.
The
author is critical of physicians who treat patients for years with
little or no results (62, 70), and yet he does not blush at
recording his own weekly exorcisms of some people that run
on for years (49, 73, 139, 169). He correctly outlines the
eventual triumph of Christ over Satan that is manifested in
exorcism cases (19–23, 56, 96), but then tells about a house
that was so infested, "I was forced to recommend simply
leaving the place" (125). What are we to make of this?
That some places are off limits to God? Fr. Amorth also
dismisses as a "false belief" the idea that the devil
will expose the sins of the others during the expulsion
ceremonies, then he immediately provides two examples of the
devil doing precisely that (94–95).
Some of
Fr. Amorth’s assertions are jarring. For example, he describes
the bizarre objects that the unfortunate people he works with
have ingested, and states that this practice might be a sign of
demonic activity (118–119). Indeed, it might be. But it might
also be a sign of pica, schizophrenia, or even Kleine-Levin
syndrome, none of which Fr. Amorth alludes to.
Other
assertions are just silly. After mentioning the use of cats in
certain types of witchcraft, Fr. Amorth adds, "I want to
make it clear that it is not the fault of this charming household
pet" (127). Later he advises that
"materialized" objects regurgitated by possessed
individuals be thrown into a river or the sewer, but never
"into the toilet or sink; when this happens, often the
entire house is flooded or every drain becomes plugged"
(138). I can imagine.
I need no
convincing that extraordinary demonic activity has increased
greatly this century, especially over the last 30 years. I have
assisted some bishops in making the initial preparations for
such a controversial ministry, and I have tried to equip a few
open-minded priests with the background reading such work
requires. Still, I understand why clergy tend to regard exorcism
with suspicion and trepidation. Pervasive personal sin and
serious psychological disturbances account for much of the
sorry state of affairs around us.
But make
no mistake: The devil is real, and his minions are active. At
times, demonic activity can be combated only by the
extraordinary invention of Christ through his Church. Fr.
Amorth’s book provides some interesting descriptions of
diabolical deeds and of the salvific responses available to
them. This book will go on my recommended reading list for
those who would like to know more about these matters (Fr.
Amorth’s observations on white magic and sorcery, to name
but two topics, I found especially helpful), but I urge
considerable caution in drawing any conclusions from it.
—Edward Peters
An
Exorcist Tells His Story
By Fr. Gabriele Amorth
Ignatius
Press: San Francisco (1999)
203 pages
$14.95
ISBN: 089870-710-2
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