Catholic Analysis
I found this commentary on biblical commentaries very helpful and enlightening. I have found commentaries largely lacking what I really want in a commentary and that is practical action and strong ethical and moral teaching. Obviously, that isn't what a commentary is for; however, why not? Why should I have to search through a mountain of abstruse comment on the use of aorist greek verb tenses to derive some small kernel of useful information about how to conduct my life?
This is why I find projects like the Catena Aurea and the modern version issued by IVP (the name of which slips my mind at the moment) very useful. Also useful, to me, is the study bible issued by the Opus Dei group--I believe it is called the Navarre. The commentary there isn't so much about how to interpret this or that obscure verse or phrase, but about how to live a life built upon biblical prinicples and the magisterium of the Church. These are the things that make a commentary or guide or gloss useful. Tell me in very practical terms exactly how to implement a given teaching. Give me step-by-step instructions because sometimes I am a complete idiot and I need them Admittedly, one must use caution when choosing a guide like this, but I get far more out of my study if I can figure out exactly what I'm supposed to be doing than when I sit and ponder the overall effect of fine distinctions of words. These things are necessary and useful to the scholar, and from them much of what I desire in a commentary flows; however, for the most part they do not lead me any closer to God, they lead me closer to philology and related fields. And for a person who looks for any excuse to diverge from the prayerful path, these commentaries are certainly tempting.
