Analogia Verbi he Truth of Scripture in Rudolf Bultmann and Raymond Brown 1 Michael Maria Waldstein 2 Ave Maria University At its core, the debate about modern exegesis is not a dispute among historians: it is rather a philosophical debate. Only in this way can it be carried on correctly; otherwise we continue with a battle in the mist. In this respect, the exegetical problem is identical with our time’s struggle about the foundations as such. … he exegete should approach the exegesis of the text not with a ready-made philosophy, not with the dictate of a so-called modern or scientiic worldview, which determines in advance what is permitted to be and what is not permitted to be. He may not exclude a priori that God is able to speak as himself in human words in the world. — Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger1 God, who spoke in the past, speaks without any break with the bride of his beloved Son, … All that the inspired authors or sacred writers airm is to be held as airmed by the Holy Spirit. — Second Vatican Council2 “here is a big diference between still believing something and believing it again: still believing that the moon acts on plants shows stupidity and superstition; believ- ing it again is a sign of philosophy and relection.”3 Georg Christoph Lichtenberg’s irony in this aphorism expresses his irm faith in the irresistibly victorious power with which the natural science shaped by Francis Bacon and René Descartes was sweeping all superstition from the table. Everything in the universe follows 1 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, “Biblical Interpretation in Crisis,” he Erasmus Lecture (January 27, 1988), in he Essential Pope Benedict XVI: His Central Writings and Speeches, eds. John F. horton and Susan B. Varenne (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2007), 243–258, at 253, 255. 2 Second Vatican Council, Dei Verbum [he Word of God], Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, (November 18, 1965), 8, 11, in he Scripture Documents: An Anthology of Oicial Catholic Teachings, ed. Dean P. Béchard, S.J. (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002), 19–31). 3 Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799), Sudelbücher [Sketchbooks], Bk. E, 52, written in the early 1770’s. For an English translation, see he Waste Books, trans. and introd. R. J. Hollingdale (New York: New York Review Books, 2000). Letter & Spirit 6 (2010): 93-140