Myths and Realities

The present collection of essays, selected by a priest-teacher and laywoman-student at Loyola University, brings together wide-ranging, mind-opening, and absorbing studies on major aspects of biblical scholarship. The volume comprises four major sections. In the first, &quote;Free Scholarship in the Church,&quote; McKenzie emerges as an articulate spokesman for freedom of intellectual inquiry within the household of the faith. Part 2, &quote;Inspiration and Revelation,&quote; are lucid, intellectually exhilarating investigations into the meaning of God's word and the historical processes from which the Bible emerged. Part 3, &quote;Myth and the Old Testament,&quote; includes probing essays that bring the reader face to face with an important and difficult subject: the attitude of the biblical man to nature and to the mythologies of his pagan neighbors. The final section, &quote;Messianism,&quote; is devoted to a study of the hopes of Israel of old and their fulfillment in Jesus Christ, along with the use of messianic passages for apologetic purposes.