IVP’s Ancient Christian Doctrine Series – Part II

Last updated on: May 15, 2010 at 12:23 am by Nijay Gupta

IVP’s Ancient Christian Doctrine Series – Part II 2010-05-15T00:23:16-08:00 Nijay Gupta

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In a previous post I mentioned the Ancient Christian Doctrine series from IVP which is now well along with five volumes. It is a reference tool to familiarize students and scholars with Patristic theology and viewpoints, based on the Nicene Creed. This is a real gem for scholars and enables NT researchers (like me) to get access easily to basic viewpoints.

In this post, I will briefly deal with the question: WHY BOTHER? I, of course, think it is very important that we ‘bother’ ourselves with the Church Fathers (and Mothers), but I find it useful to address this issue.

1) We have largely ignored the Church Fathers in NT studies because we tend to see the NT period as the most important time of Jesus, his disciples, and the apostles. We tend to idealize those times and presume that what happened later was basically a lot of bickering about ‘theology’. However, without such dialogue and refinement, we wouldn’t be where we are now. Also, as many have pointed out before, we should be careful not to presume life was grand in the earliest period – think of how confused and muddled the Corinthian church was! In any case, that barrier between the NT period and the Patristic period is beginning to crumble, as we see that that boundary is more porous and permeable than once assumed. Part of this recognition owes thanks to a better understanding of the process of the canonization of Scripture. We read the NT and often forget how the NT got to us – through the labor and wisdom of post-NT theologians and leaders. A nice sign of the times is the new journal Early Christianity (Mohr Siebeck) which seeks to reestablish the continuity between NT studies and the early Patristic period.

2) Another important reason to bother with the Church Fathers is that they were truly excellent theologians and readers of Scripture. Now, we are not trained to think like this. For too long, higher criticism taught that we must read the Bible like any other book (and only this way) – without a regula fide, without bias, and pursuing what can be determined by historical and grammatical exegetical methods. However, the Theological Interpretation of Scripture movement (Fowl, Green, Moberly, Hays, Davis, etc…) has realized that the Christian Bible is first and foremost for Christians – Christians who read the Bible as their sacred texts and not as an academic artefact. Thus, theological persuasions are not (always) a liability. In fact, they can be helpful. So, we do not have to ignore the Patristic theologians for their empassioned sermonic readings of Scripture. Rather, we can appreciate that the Spirit teaches and guides all kinds of people in all kinds of places and times and we can be spurred on and taught by them. On this, see especially Brian Daley’s essay ‘Is Patristic Exegesis Still Usable? Some Reflections on Early Christian Interpretation of the Psalms’ in R. Hays and E. Davis (eds.) The Art of Reading Scripture (Eerdmans).

3) In his book Seeing the Word: Refocusing New Testament Study, Markus Bockmuehl argues that NT studies is in a confused state, with so much fragmentation and a bewilderingly enormous set of tools for interpretation to work with. How do we move forward? Bockmuehl has much wise advice, but one important area is early reception history – how was the NT understood and interpreted by its earliest recipients? While we can guess a bit what this was for the original readers/hearers (e.g. for Romans or Philippians), this also includes those earliest theologians that reflected on Scripture. Also, Bockmuehl encourages the study of other forms of reception – early liturgy, art, etc… In any case, we can appreciate the Patristic writers as early interpreters of Scripture.

These are just a few reasons why we can and should bother with the Church Fathers, but there are more reasons that I won’t fully discuss. Certainly, though, advances in technology and the use of the internet is part of the flood of interest – we can access the texts and translations very easily on the web and critical discussions in commentaries through e-books, googlebooks, LOGOS, etc… Finally, I think we are getting to a place where there is more inter-faculty discussion of issues – conferences where ‘theologians’ and ‘Bible scholars’ are in real dialogue. Again, the fact that the recent Wheaton conference on N.T. Wright included Jeremy Begbie and Kevin Vanhoozer is a salutary sign.

I have said this kind of thing before, but it is worth repeating – we must be careful, when we get into patristic study as NT researchers, not to ‘plunder’ the Fathers – that is, just poke around and quote random sentences from a dozen sources and people. This is a very scattershot method that will fall under scrutiny very quickly. Better to ask a Patristic insider to point you in the right direction on a given subject of your interest, pick 2 0r 3 authors and read deeply. Of course, use the IVP sets to get a sense of where the discussions are. But these books are not meant to be the full solution for researchers – they offer quick reference, devotional inspiration, and a bird-eye view of dialogue and development, but they should inspire a pursuit of the sources for deeper understanding.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

May 14, 2010

IVP's Ancient Christian Doctrine Series - Part I

Next Post

May 17, 2010 Christianity in the Greco-Roman World (Book Notice)

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category (Mis)Understanding Philippians 10 Things I Can't Live Without 2023 New Books 30 OT HB Scholars to Read and Follow 5 Books Series 50-2-Follow Academia Christian Theologians to Read and Follow Cruciform Scripture: Contributor Reflections Crux Sola TV Editors Behind Great Books in NT Studies Education Gendering the Holy Spirit Gupta FB Live Lectures In Faith and Doubt In Their Own Words Living the King Jesus Gospel My Top 6 OT Commentaries New Testament Resource Guide New Word Biblical Themes Nijay's A Very Library Christmas Shopping Guide Notes from an Editor Notes on New Books NTRG OT in the NT Paul Seminary Now The Bible in God's World The Word Felt Among Us SPENCER Translating Philippians Uncategorized Why I Use Accordance Women in Ministry

Select a Month March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 May 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz