Exegesis and Theology in Early Christianity

Frances Young is Emeritus Professor, University of Birmingham, UK.

• Contents: Introduction; Part A From Exegesis to Hermeneutics: Adam and Anthropos: a study of the interaction of science and the Bible in two anthropological treatises of the 4th century; John Chrysostom on first and second Corinthians; Allegory and atonement; The rhetorical schools and their influence on patristic exegesis; The 4th century reaction against allegory; Allegory and the ethics of reading; From suspicion and sociology to spirituality: on method, hermeneutics and appropriation with respect to patristic material; The Apostolic Constitutions: a methodological case-study; On episcopos and presbyteros; Ministerial forms and functions in the Church communities of the Greek Fathers; Exegetical method and scriptural proof: the Bible in doctrinal debate; Proverbs 8 in interpretation (2): wisdom personified. Part B From Doctrine to Theology: Paideia and the myth of static dogma; The Confessions of St Augustine: what is the genre of this work?; Did Epiphanius know what he meant by heresy?; Creatio ex nihilo: a context for the emergence of the Christian doctrine of creation; Naked or clothed? Eschatology and the doctrine of creation; Creation and human being: the forging of a distinct Christian discourse; Theotokos: Mary and the pattern of fall and redemption in the theology of Cyril of Alexandria; The God of the Greeks and the nature of religious language; Index.

'... all [the twenty essays and lectures in this volume] are of considerable interest to anyone who is trying to come to grips with the formative period of our shared Christian past.' Ecclesiology