Jerome Institute Research Projects


Jerome Institute, headquartered at the St. Mary Magdalen Center in Warner, New Hampshire, seeks to overcome "the crisis of biblical interpretation" and enter a new orchard of biblical studies for the third millennium. While treating the literal sense of the sacred texts with the rigor they deserve, we also utilize the Church's spiritual senses, striving for truly Catholic interpretation. We bring together researchers, students and their families, as well as the wider public to learn from and to engage in biblical studies. 

Objectives:

  • Pursue a new orchard in biblical scholarship by answering Pope Benedict XVI's call to discover an inner harmony between historical analysis and hermeneutical synthesis of the Scriptures
  • Support students in acquiring the skills and knowledge required to recognize and bring to light this inner harmony between history and theology
  • Challenge the field of biblical scholarship to unpack "things hidden since the foundation of the world".


Key Projects


RESEARCH
Jerome Institute supports research that answers open questions, challenges the status quo of modern research, and pushes the field of biblical studies forward.  

"Codex Z" is an ongoing project to reconstruct the ancient archetype of the Pauline bilingual (Greek and Latin) manuscripts D, F and G. This project was proposed by Catholics in Germany in the 20th century, and Dr. Jordan Almanzar revived it in his article, “Codex Z in Galatians: Employing and Inventing Readings in the Fourth Century,” in Biblische Notizen, Nr. 175, 83-93. A team of dedicated researchers is required to complete the reconstruction which will then make a permanent mark on New Testament textual criticism.
PUBLICATIONS
Jerome Institute supports the publication of new work. Graduate studies are especially geared towards students completing research projects that will be published either as monographs or collected chapters for multi-author anthologies.
PREREQUISITE EDUCATION
Jerome Institute supports educational endeavors that place the Sacred Scriptures as the guide and chief end of human learning. In the words of Pope Benedict the XVI when speaking about St. Jerome, "Education before God and man: it is Sacred Scripture that offers us the guide for education and thus of true humanism." For this reason we have launched Jerome Prep, a formational experiment for school-aged students who will tread a similar educational path as some of the greatest saints. We recognize, however, that "History does not proceed by starting with a definition of what it takes over from the past, but by taking possession of it and adapting it to its new purposes." So, like the Christians of the earliest centuries, we relegate the secular classics as a prerequisite to biblical studies and we adapt them to our own unique moment in history. Jerome Prep offers school-aged students prerequisite courses that do just this.


ARCHIVES
Jerome Institute supports the preservation, digitization, and organization of old and rare books collections. We also translate and categorize authenticating relic documentation.


SUMMARY
Through retreats, courses, lectures, discussions, and publications, Jerome Institute seeks to empower Catholics to "live among Scriptures, to meditate upon them, to know nothing else, to seek nothing else" and to discern whether "such a life does not seem to be a foretaste of heaven here on earth." - St Jerome