Interpreting Scripture with the Great Tradition – Recovering the Genius of Premodern Exegesis

The rise of modernity, especially the European Enlightenment and its aftermath, has negatively impacted the way we understand the nature and interpretation of Christian Scripture. In this introduction to biblical interpretation, Craig Carter evaluates the problems of post-Enlightenment hermeneutics and offers an alternative approach: exegesis in harmony with the Great Tradition. Carter argues for the validity of patristic christological exegesis, showing that we must recover the Nicene theological tradition as the context for contemporary exegesis, and seeks to root both the nature and interpretation of Scripture firmly in trinitarian orthodoxy.

Craig A. Carter (PhD, University of St. Michael's College) is professor of theology at Tyndale University College and Seminary in Toronto, Ontario, and is the author of Rethinking "Christ and Culture." He previously served as vice president and academic dean at Crandall University and at Tyndale University College.

"The rediscovery and celebration of patristic exegesis continues apace and across a wide ecumenical spectrum. Craig Carter offers here a robust, readable, and bracing defense of a fundamental truth: patristic exegesis offers not only a 'method' for reading but a theology of Scripture. Following this insight Carter develops a theology of Scripture rooted deeply in the Nicene doctrine of God and poses a stark challenge to all who would separate the reading of the text from our theological confession."-- Lewis Ayres , Durham University"A timely intervention into the contemporary conversation. I nearly called it an interruption because the book is so feisty, blunt, and urgent, but Carter avoids rudeness and rashness. He has obviously been listening very carefully for some time to the major voices, and he now makes his own contribution: a strategic renarrating of the standard account of premodern exegesis. In Carter's retelling, key doctrines (Christology and Trinity) loom large, as do certain capital letters (Great Tradition; Christian Platonism). This is a stimulating and accessible account of how to carry on reading the Bible theologically."-- Fred Sanders , Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University"I love this book! Carter unequivocally starts out with the Christian Platonism that informed the Nicene tradition and unabashedly takes aim at the naturalism that undergirds biblical exegesis in modernity. Carter's contemplative logic is irrefutable: If Scripture participates in the Word of God, then we are surely right to see Christ sacramentally present also in the Old Testament Scriptures."-- Hans Boersma , Regent College"With comprehensive breadth, Carter argues that a theological interpretation of Scripture that is grounded in the Nicene faith, Christian Platonism, and christological literalism has always been at the heart of the church's great evangelical preaching. Carter links contemporary evangelical practices to the best strands of patristic, medieval, and Reformation exegesis, inviting us to grasp the interaction of exegesis, dogma, and metaphysics as part of a spiritual discipline in which the believing reader is united to Christ by being transformed and purified by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Readable and passionately argued, this volume is for those who want a comprehensive account of retrieving tradition as the way forward for evangelicals."-- Annette Brownlee , Wycliffe College, University of Toronto

The rise of modernity, especially the European Enlightenment and its aftermath, has negatively impacted the way we understand the nature and interpretation of Christian Scripture. In this introduction to biblical interpretation, Craig Carter evaluates the problems of post-Enlightenment hermeneutics and offers an alternative approach: exegesis in harmony with the Great Tradition. Carter argues for the validity of patristic christological exegesis, showing that we must recover the Nicene theological tradition as the context for contemporary exegesis, and seeks to root both the nature and interpretation of Scripture firmly in trinitarian orthodoxy.

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