This study of uses of Scripture in the writings of Athanasius of Alexandria draws upon detailed textual observations to construct a coherent description of interpretive practices across the several genres in which this prominent fourth-century bishop wrote.

The past thirty years have seen an unprecedented level of interest in early Christian biblical interpretation, from major scholarly initiatives to more popular resources aimed at pastors and general readers. The fields of Biblical Studies and Patristics/Early Christian Studies each arrived at the study of early Christian biblical interpretation largely from their own standpoints, and they tend to operate in relative isolation from one another. This books aims to bring the two fields into closer conversation, in order to suggest new avenues into the study of the deeply biblical dimension of patristic theology as well as the contribution that patristic exegesis can make to contemporary views of how best to interpret the Bible. Based on a multi-year consultation in the Society of Biblical Literature, The Bible and Early Trinitarian Theology features leading scholars from both fields, who bring new insights to the relationship between patristic exegesis and current strategies of biblical interpretation, specifically with reference to the doctrine of the Trinity. Following an account of how each field came to study patristic exegesis, the book offers new studies of Trinitarian theology in Old Testament, Johannine, and Pauline biblical texts and the patristic interpretation of them, combining the insights of modern historical criticism with classical historical theology. It promises to make a valuable contribution to both fields, suggesting several new avenue into the study of early biblical literature and the development of Trinitarian theology.

This book offers an overview of how the Church Fathers used and intepretated biblical texts. It brings together a range of different Christian confessional and social perspectives to explore the biblical basis and impact of their thinking. The contributors cover different ages and traditions, with each chapter focusing on a specific individual and theme. The book takes an ecumenical approach to the relationship between the Church Fathers and Holy Scripture and fosters a better understanding of the relationship between Christian tradition and the Bible. It will be of interest to scholars of Christian theology, the history of Christianity, biblical studies and patristics.

A “wonderful…highly comprehensive” (John Barton, author of A History of the Bible) global history of the world’s best-known and most influential book For Christians, the Bible is a book inspired by God. Its eternal words are transmitted across the world by fallible human hands. Following Jesus’s departing instruction to go out into the world, the Bible has been a book in motion from its very beginnings, and every community it has encountered has read, heard, and seen the Bible through its own language and culture. In The Bible, Bruce Gordon tells the astounding story of the Bible’s journey around the globe and across more than two thousand years, showing how it has shaped and been shaped by changing beliefs and believers’ radically different needs. The Bible has been a tool for violence and oppression, and it has expressed hopes for liberation. God speaks with one voice, but the people who receive it are scattered and divided—found in desert monasteries and Chinese house churches, in Byzantine cathedrals and Guatemalan villages. Breathtakingly global in scope, The Bible tells the story of this sacred book through the stories of its many and diverse human encounters, revealing not a static text but a living, dynamic cultural force.

Christians throughout church history have struggled with the Old Testament—defining it, interpreting it, and reconciling it with the New Testament. In this thorough, accessible work, Duane A. Garrett surveys three primary methods Christians have used to handle the Old Testament, offering a way forward that is faithful to the text and to the Christian faith.

Thomas Weinandy has done an excellent job in this book in introducing Athanasius' theology. A well-known Catholic scholar in historical theology, Weinandy has provided students of theology with a profound historiography of Athanasius' major theological writing. - Calvin Theological Journal "A reliable, concise introduction to the theology of Athanasius." - International Journal of Systematic Theology "A sustained and intelligent introduction to Athanasius and his literature, and will rightly appear on all undergraduate patristic bibliographies." - The Journal of Theological Studies "A very fine theological (as its subtitle emphasizes) introduction to the Alexandrian bishop...[an] accessible, intelligent, and worthy volume, which offers the reader an overview of Athanasius's thought within the context of his full, if at times harried, ecclesiastical life." - Nova et Vetera "Weinandy offers a summary of Athanasius' central works and a balanced assessment of his theology's merits and contemporary significance...No student of Athanasius should overlook this reliable guidebook to the little Alexandrian's great life and works." - Religious Studies Review "Weinandy's introduction to Athanasius is an important work, familiarizing the reader with Athanasius' life, writings, and fundamental concerns. Throughout, the centrality of soteriology clearly emerges, whether the topic is the doctrine of the Trinity or the life of Antony. Hopefully this book will serve to bring Athanasius' soteriology more prominently into contemporary discussions alongside the other great masterpieces on this doctrine." - Themelios

This volume contains the Proceedings of the 50th Colloquium Biblicum Lovaniense: the 40 contributions, written in English, French and German, focus on the canons of the Old and New Testament as well as those of the Bible as a whole. The theme is studied from a variety of historical, hermeneutical and biblical-theological points of view. Several contributions discuss the process that resulted in the canonical status of certain writings, or groups of writings, in particular, such as the Book of Psalms, Ezekiel, the Wisdom of Ben Sira, the Pauline corpus, Acts and the gospels.

How can an ancient text, written far from a contemporary Christian in time and space, be taken up as life-transforming Scripture today? This book seeks to address that question in a study of Proverbs 8, a passage that was central to the Christological debates of the fourth century, but for many contemporary Christians seems remote and irrelevant. In the course of the study, the instincts and insights of pre-modern Christians and modern critical methods are taken up to understand the passage. Additionally, the text is placed in conversation with contemporary philosophical reflection on the nature of reading and meaning. In this latter endeavor, Charles Taylor, Paul Ricoeur, Nicholas Lash, and George Lindbeck are all drawn into engagement with the passage. Emerging from this conversation is a sense of Wisdom in the world, beckoning the Christian into a particular mode of being-in-the-world.

The volume is a Festschrift offered to Charles Kannengiesser on the occasion of his 80th birthday and honours him for his numerous scholarly accomplishments. Its twenty-five contributions discuss some of the major issues pertaining to the reception and interpretation of the Bible in late antique Christianity and Judaism. They focus on the ways in which communities and individuals understood the Bible and interpreted its traditions to address their historical, social, and theological requirements. Since the Bible was by far the most important book during these centuries, a discussion of its influence in such contexts will illuminate significant aspects of the formation of western civilisation.

This is the thoroughly updated and expanded third edition of the successful The Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon. It represents a fresh attempt to understand some of the many perplexing questions related to the origins and canonicity of the Bible.