Benedict XVI has just published the post-synodal apostolic exhortation Verbum Domini (Word of the Lord), an extensive document of more than eighty pages, which is organized in three parts: God speaks, the Word of God in the Church, and the Word of God in the world. This text is offered as a theological, pastoral and spiritual reflection, with traces of special speculative density. At the foot of the page there are numerous references taken from the Fathers of the Church, medieval masters and theologians of the 19th and 20th centuries. Also noteworthy are citations from a document of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, graduate The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church (1993).

The Pope rejoices that the Bible has regained its rightful place in liturgical celebrations, in preaching and in the spiritual life of the faithful. Vatican II, the apostolic activity of some Christian movements and many other ecclesial instances have contributed to this. The Tridentine misgivings about placing the translation of the Bible in the hands of the faithful have, thank God, been left behind, and the entire Pauline corpus has been recovered for popular piety.

Benedict XVI warns, however, against a "secularized hermeneutic" (the exaggeration of the historical-critical method) and against a fundamentalist reading of the sacred text (a literalist interpretation). First, that "Scripture must be proclaimed, heard, read, accepted and lived as the Word of God, within the apostolic Tradition, from which it cannot be separated"; from which it follows that the Christian faith is not a "religion of the Book", but the "religion of the Word of God". Secondly, the process of "biblical inspiration" must be re-examined, since Scripture is born from the bosom of the Church, through the work of the Spirit. The latter will require close cooperation between theologians and exegetes, who up to now have been rather reluctant to collaborate.