Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church
Overview
This work argues that the heart of patristic exegesis is the attempt to find the sacramental reality (real presence) of Christ in the Old Testament Scriptures. Leading theologian Hans Boersma discusses numerous sermons and commentaries of the church fathers to show how they regarded Christ as the treasure hidden in the field of the Old Testament and explains that the church today can and should retrieve the sacramental reading of the early church. Combining detailed scholarly insight with clear, compelling prose, this book makes a unique contribution to contemporary interest in theological interpretation.
- Discusses numerous sermons and commentaries of the church fathers
- Explores how the church fathers regarded Christ as the treasure hidden in the field of the Old Testament
- Combines detailed scholarly insight with clear, compelling prose
- Patristic Reading
- Literal Reading
- Hospitable Reading
- Other Reading
- Incarnational Reading
- Harmonious Reading
- Doctrinal Reading
Top Highlights
“My Christian Platonist convictions persuade me that everything around us is sacramental, in the sense that everything God has created both points to him and makes him present.” (Page 1)
“Because it is in finding the presence of Christ that we most deeply come to know ourselves” (Page xvi)
“The main argument is that they saw the Scriptures as a sacrament and read them accordingly” (Page 1)
This volume makes an outstanding contribution to the retrieval of the ancient Christian biblical hermeneutic. Through a careful analysis of individual texts, Boersma demonstrates that patristic exegesis is not based on naive allegorizing but on a theology of history in which Christ is recognized as truly present in the words and deeds of the old covenant. This book will reinforce the growing consensus that patristic exegesis remains valid and indispensable for the church today.
—Mary Healy, professor of Sacred Scripture, Sacred Heart Major Seminary
Biblical exegesis has to be approached amid metaphysical and spiritual commitments attuned to the gospel or else unexamined assumptions will invariably cause even our most disciplined efforts at biblical interpretation to unravel. Hans Boersma helps us think carefully about how we read the Bible by reintroducing us to patristic exegesis. Alerting us to the exegetical practice of Origen, Gregory, and many others, he reminds us that ‘they saw the Scriptures as a sacrament and read them accordingly.’ For sensitive readings of varied early church fathers and a host of their reading approaches, all rooted in common commitments to the relations of God and the world and of theology and spirituality, take up and read Boersma’s book.
—Michael Allen, associate professor of systematic and historical theology, Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando
- Title: Scripture as Real Presence: Sacramental Exegesis in the Early Church
- Author: Hans Boersma
- Publisher: Baker
- Publication Date: 2018
- Pages: 336
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Topic: Early Church