"The Bible is to be our main prayer book."James ProthroThe Bible is a book that we must bring to life".Raymond Studzinski:The Bible is an encounter with the divine".María Vallejo-Nágera has begun a project of immense dimensions: to help the "biblical oafs" to understand the Bible. With the editorial Palabra is preparing a collection of some 11 volumes in which he will explain little by little all the events of the Scripture.
The simple language and touch of humor that the author brings to her works allows adults, believers and atheists alike, to approach the best-selling and most translated book in the world with a different perspective. María Vallejo-Nágera assures that she does not explain the Bible for theologians and connoisseurs, but for ordinary Catholics, for all those who open a copy of the Old Testament and get a headache trying to locate the people or pronounce the names of the places through which the Chosen People pass.
The first volume of the collection covers the story from Adam and Eve to Abraham and, as the author points out, serves as an appetizer to begin the great adventure of all Catholics: delving into the Bible.
What is a "biblical dunce" and why are you dedicating a collection of books to it?
- A "biblical dunce," to begin with, is an adult. A biblical dunce is a person who, Catholic or not, has no idea about the Bible. The dunce may have a copy of the Bible, sitting on a shelf full of cobwebs, but he doesn't know it.
I have written the book with a very simple vocabulary, with a little humor, with no desire to attack anything or anyone in the Bible. The idea is that the reader wakes up and is very attentive to the information in the Bible. The goal is that people who do not understand the Bible can understand the basics by reading "The Bible for Dummies".
This book is like the appetizer that prepares you for the steak that comes later. I want the book to arouse the reader's curiosity to take the plunge and read the Bible.
How did you prepare to write this book?
- At the age of 53 I was fortunate to be accepted at Harvard. I studied there for a full year a course on the Old and New Testament and early Christianity up to the 12th century. There I fell in love with this subject and realized that I had to do something when I returned to Madrid.
On my return I enrolled at the Pontifical University of Comillas and obtained a degree as a Specialist in Biblical Spirituality. I studied hard and decided to tell what I had learned, but in my own way. I started to tell my friends about it through a school I set up in the Prado Museum, explaining the Bible in front of the paintings. We ended up with 120 women going to the Museum and we received the blessing of Cardinal Rouco's secretary.
The school level was very simple and is the one I have kept for the collection, because it is what the dunces need.
In the book you talk about a "philosophical-spiritual indigestion" if people read the Bible too fast. What can we do to avoid this "indigestion"?
- It is enough to read the Bible 20 minutes a day, starting little by little. And I especially recommend the Navarre Bible and the Jerusalem Bible, because they are full of small print that helps you understand the context. In particular, the Navarra Bible is perfectly translated, which is a very important detail.
In addition, I invite people to go to my book when they don't understand something in the Bible, where I try to provide the context to better understand what we read.
You say that the Bible is a very current book even though it was written thousands of years ago. Why?
- The Bible is a book that can be translated into the present. The issues it deals with are the same ones that arise for us today. We do not travel through the desert, but we still have the same problems of faith, we are concerned about the same questions. So much so, that when we read the "Song of Songs", the prophetic books or the wisdom books, we see the moral and emotional issues of thousands of years ago that are still valid today.
What about the inconsistencies that many point out in the Bible?
- We are talking about a very ancient and complex book, written by hands we do not know. We must also take into account that there are many parts of the Bible that we have lost over the centuries and that we are discovering little by little.
The Bible is a very complex book. I remember a professor of Genesis at Harvard who explained to us that, from one verse to the next, we are clearly missing a piece. Knowing this, it is not surprising that there are inconsistencies.
Why don't Catholics know the Bible?
- Catholics were forbidden for a long time to read the Bible. This had a meaning and that is that normally the laity did not have the necessary formation to understand the text.
I believe that the Church has failed in this, because after the Second Vatican Council the prohibition was lifted but the Bible has not been explained to us. By doing that, I dare say that, because of this lack of knowledge, we are not even able to understand the depth of the Mass.
The Protestants have taken the lead and we should be ashamed of ourselves. The Catholic needs to dust off the Bible and start getting to know it.
What is the best disposition for reading the Bible?
- We must open our hearts and tell the Lord that we do not understand what we read. We must ask God for the grace to understand it. It is good to start from the beginning, read little by little and let the Lord give us light. And better yet, we should get used to reading the Bible as a family.
