Turning Points in the Teaching of Sacred Scripture at the University of Santo Tomas (1965 – 2021)

Abstract

This paper reflects the paradigm shifts experienced in teaching the Sacred Scripture at the University of Santo Tomas from 1965 – 2021. The context of the teaching of Sacred Scripture at the University of Santo Tomas from 1965 to the present (2021) is the several, significant, and fast-paced changes in the Church locally, and in Asia, internationally. The Ecclesiastical Faculties of the University of Santo Tomas did not experience any turbulence during this period. However, the Faculties made changes. Sometimes we went ahead of changes in the “first world” Churches, as when we helped produce the first five Inter- confessional translations of the Bible (Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilokano, Hiligaynon and Waray) with the Tagalog being published in time to be presented to Pope John Paul II during his first visit to the country in 1980, and we collaborated in the building up of the first National (Inculturated) Catholic Catechism (1992-1997). Our Faculty of Sacred Theology also gave prominence to Mary in Scripture when, by the second half of the 1960s, careful attention was given to the Infancy Narratives of Matthew and Luke, and the Marian texts of John 2:1- 11 and 19:25. Pastorally, our Theology students were encouraged, as early as 1983 to have devotion to “Our Lady of the Bible” whose presence and words had something to do with the first miracle of Jesus at Cana in Galilee.