Cur Deus Verba unfolds a systematic theology of Scripture from a single key question: What did God seek to accomplish by making the Bible? The answer requires seeing why the Holy Trinity made anything at all, why the Word became flesh, and finally why the Church needs an inspired text. As Christ is more fully "man" than any mere man, so his Church is more fully "society" than any merely human society; and as every society has its literary tradition, so the Church needed a canon of literature which would be more fully "book" than any merely human books.

Cur Deus Verba is a work of theology in the narrow sense: a reflection that takes God as its subject and everything else in relation to God. It treats every aspect of Scripture, including the human elements, to be understood in relation to God. And, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said,"The debate about modern exegesis is, at heart, not a debate among historians, but a philosophical debate."