Professor Scott Hahn, a prominent American Catholic scholar and author, addressed the community at Harvard’s St. Paul’s Catholic Church on April 4, 2025. The event was organized by the Harvard Catholic Forum.
Hahn, who founded the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology and previously studied near Boston, expressed his pleasure at returning to the area, calling the Harvard Catholic Forum “a gem.”
His lecture, initially titled “Veritas: The Saving Truth of Scripture,” was reframed by Hahn as “Veritas: The Saving Truth and Humility of God’s Word.” He aimed to build bridges within the diverse Harvard community, hoping the truth of Scripture would resonate regardless of background.
Hahn traced Harvard’s motto from “In Christi Gloriam” and “Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae” to the current “Veritas” (Truth). He connected this pursuit of truth to the Catholic faith, emphasizing that Catholicism is not merely a “religion of the book” but of the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ.
He argued that understanding Scripture requires intellectual humility, mirroring the humility of Jesus. “The foolishness of divine condescension urges that we lay aside our educated conceit in approaching the biblical words,” Hahn stated. He cited Jesus’ appearance to the disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24) as an example of Christ’s humility and his explanation of the Old Testament as essential for understanding his identity.
Hahn stressed the necessity of the Old Testament to comprehend the New, noting the early Church understood Jesus within this context. He further connected Christ’s humility to his presence in the Eucharist, quoting Pope Benedict XVI: “Ignorance of Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist is a form of ignorance of Christ himself.”
Concluding his talk, Hahn invited everyone, Christian or not, “to take the Lord at his word, and above all to open our hearts to the Word made flesh.”
The full lecture is available to watch online.
