Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers (review)

This book is a basic introduction to patristic biblical interpretation. Although it could serve as a stand-alone handbook, it functions as the introduction to the new InterVarsity series, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, of which Christopher Hall is Associate Editor. Both that series and this handbook are written primarily for readers who are encountering the church fathers for the first time.

The author conveys the enthusiasm of a convert seeking to bring others to an appreciation of patristic literature. In sympathy with the program of Thomas Oden, his Doktorvater and the General Editor of the ACCS, Hall devotes the first two chapters to showing why his readers should care about the fathers and their interpretation of scripture. He critiques the rationalism and anti-traditionalism of both Protestant fundamentalism and modern biblical interpretation. Hall avers that both approaches are too self-confident, too dismissive of ancient wisdom, and blind to the influences that may corrupt our understanding of the biblical text. Hall commends to his readers the conviction of the fathers that “the Scriptures have been given to the church, are read, preached, heard and comprehended within the community of the church, and are safely interpreted only by those whose character is continually being formed by prayer, worship, meditation, self-examination, confession and other means by which Christ’s grace is communicated to his body” (42).

Hall selects four “doctors” from the East (Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, and John Chrysostom) and four from the West (Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory the Great) as models of the exegetical methodology regnant during the crucial period from the late third to the early seventh centuries. He offers a thumbnail biographical sketch of each, followed by a “hermeneutical sampler.” This sampler is designed to acquaint the reader with ways in which each father interpreted the Bible in light of the specific theological and pastoral problems with which he was faced. If allotted space is any indication, the Eastern fathers (44 pp.) seem more important than those of the West (29 pp.) and Gregory Nazianzen rates the lengthiest (16 pp.) and most enthusiastic treatment of all.

Two chapters treat the multilayered exegesis of the fathers under the traditional categories of Alexandrian and Antiochian approaches. Here the author brings into the discussion exegetes not among the circle of eight, namely Irenaeus, Origen, Diodorus of Tarsus, and Theodore of Mopsuestia. A final chapter suggests that modern readers seek to build a bridge to patristic exegesis by examining their own hermeneutical prejudices and trying to enter empathetically the unfamiliar worlds of the church fathers.

Hall clearly has Protestant evangelicals in mind as his primary audience. His emphasis is on the pastoral/practical usefulness of patristic exegesis and on the value of reading the fathers as a way of tapping into a consensual theology.

This book has many of the virtues of an introductory textbook: It is short, coherently organized and written, and not overburdened with specialist jargon. It might be a good primary text for an undergraduate course and a useful supplementary text for a seminary-level introduction to the fathers, especially in an evangelical Protestant milieu.