Reading the Gospels with Gregory the Great: Homilies on the Gospels 21-26 (review)

Santha Bhattacharji's purpose in translating these six homilies of Gregory the Great, all taken from the octave of Easter, is to introduce "a modern audience to an older, and in its time widespread method of reading the Bible" (22-23). The work comprises an elucidating introduction, the homilies, endnotes, and a select bibliography. Bhattacharji herself is a lecturer in Old and Middle English at Keble College, University of Oxford.

The book includes a useful introduction. After an account of Gregory's life and works, she discusses the Homilies on the Gospels and their use and influence in medieval Europe. She writes, "When explaining the Gospel, [Gregory] was concerned to reach as wide and as mixed an audience as possible" (2). Thus, his main goal was to emphasize the Gospel's practical message for his congregation (9).

The real value of the translator's introduction, however, is her explanation of the patristic approach to Scripture. Specifically, Bhattacharji explains the fourfold sense of Scripture and then gives examples of allegory, typology, and Scriptural cross-references—all from Gregory's own writings. She concludes that the major characteristics of Gregory's exegetical method are "the stress on the inner, spiritual meaning of physical details, the concern with moral teaching, and the use of typology and Scriptural cross-references" (21). She remarks that Gregory's use of typology occasionally leads to the awkward circumstances of morally dubious characters being likened to Christ. One such instance is Gregory's comparison of Samson's escape from Gaza, where he had gone to visit a prostitute, to Christ's escape from hell after his crucifixion (16).

Bhattacharji is honest and forthright about the purpose of her translation: to provide a coherent but intelligent version of Gregory's homilies for a wide audience. Consequently, she takes certain—perhaps questionable—liberties in her translation. She writes that since Gregory's homilies are meant to be heard rather than read, some repetitive phrases have been eliminated for the sake of clarity (21). In addition, she has expanded certain expressions in order to clarify Gregory's meaning (22).

There are a few typographical errors peppered throughout the book but these are not egregious enough, even collectively, to subtract from the overall worth of the book. What Bhattacharji has succeeded in doing here is mimicking Gregory's homiletic goal: she has offered a book for broad readership that is very readable but informative. This book would be ideal for undergraduate courses, and, perhaps, even for some graduate survey classes.