(urth) flooding and scripture

[Dan'l Danehy-Oakes]

Jack,

Thanks for the Presbyterian view.  Here's the (fairly nuanced)
Catholic view, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

108 Still, the Christian faith is not a "religion of the book."
Christianity is the religion of the "Word" of God, a word which is
"not a written and mute word, but the Word which is incarnate and
living". If the Scriptures are not to remain a dead letter, Christ,
the eternal Word of the living God, must, through the Holy Spirit,
"open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures."

109 In Sacred Scripture, God speaks to man in a human way. To
interpret Scripture correctly, the reader must be attentive to what
the human authors truly wanted to affirm, and to what God wanted to
reveal to us by their words.

110 In order to discover the sacred authors' intention, the reader
must take into account the conditions of their time and culture, the
literary genres in use at that time, and the modes of feeling,
speaking and narrating then current. "For the fact is that truth is
differently presented and expressed in the various types of historical
writing, in prophetical and poetical texts, and in other forms of
literary expression."

111 But since Sacred Scripture is inspired, there is another and no
less important principle of correct interpretation, without which
Scripture would remain a dead letter. "Sacred Scripture must be read
and interpreted in the light of the same Spirit by whom it was
written."

134 All sacred Scripture is but one book, and this one book is Christ,
"because all divine Scripture speaks of Christ, and all divine
Scripture is fulfilled in Christ" (Hugh of St. Victor, De arca Noe 2,
8: PL 176, 642: cf. ibid. 2, 9: PL 176, 642-643).

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes