Council Of Trent

Yves Congar reflect on the theological climate in which the Council of Trent was developed, paying attention to the relationship between Scripture and Tradition in as regard of the theme of Revelation. One of the most important aspects to which Congar begins to construct his idea is the meaning that theologians gave to the word “Gospel.” Congar suggests in the chapter, the Council of Trent and Post-Tridentine Theology, that several theologians came to the conclusion that this meant more than the canonical writing Gospels. For them, “the Gospel” encompasses the “salvific content… relating to the saving event of Christ.” In order to support this argument, the scholars affirmed that the Gospel was “written, not in ink as a document, but in men’s hearts, by the Spirit of God.” In this sense, they suggested that the canonical Scriptures, both written and unwritten tradition, are the forms under which the Spirit makes the Gospel known to mankind.

He also makes reference to the unwillingness of the member of the Council of Trent to make a distinction between the two of them. For this reason, they only disagreed in the matter, but this took the Council to end up restricting itself to the “apostolic tradition,” which could be considered as a single unit with canonical Scripture. Likewise, Congar approaches in his writing to the question of whether Trent considered Scripture and Tradition as independent sources of Revelation. Many Council father had this conception. However, the Council intentionally used ambiguous and imprecise wording that left the possibility to either interpretation. This was and an attempt to avoid to take a marked side because of the significant