The Pope Gets Missional

Hat Tip to Dave Opderbeck at Through A Glass Darkly for finding this quote from one of Pope Benedict’s latest speeches:

We may put it even more simply:  Scripture requires exegesis, and it
requires the context of the community in which it came to birth and in
which it is lived.  This is where its unity is to be found, and here
too its unifying meaning is opened up.  To put it yet another way:
there are dimensions of meaning in the word and in words which only
come to light within the living community of this history-generating
word.  Through the growing realization of the different layers of
meaning, the word is not devalued, but in fact appears in its full
grandeur and dignity.  Therefore the Catechism of the Catholic Church
can rightly say that Christianity does not simply represent a religion
of the book in the classical sense (cf. par. 108).  It perceives in the
words the Word, the Logos itself, which spreads its
mystery through this multiplicity and the reality of a human history. 
This particular structure of the Bible issues a constantly new
challenge to every generation.  It excludes by its nature everything
that today is known as fundamentalism.  In effect, the word of God can
never simply be equated with the letter of the text.  To attain to it
involves a transcending and a process of understanding, led by the
inner movement of the whole and hence it also has to become a process
of living.  Only within the dynamic unity of the whole are the many
books one book.  The Word of God and his action in the world are revealed only in the word and history of human beings.

The whole speech is found here.  David has a larger quotation here. A long distance hat tip goes to Voice of Stefan for tipping David off to this.