SUGGESTION: Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible

MJ. Smith

Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible

Yes, I know we have other books that deal with how the early church fathers interpreted scripture but this volume does a particularly good job of showing how the recognition of patterns served the literal (patterns of word associations), typological (patterns of event), and allegorical (patterns of themes and beliefs) interpretations.

DMB

Repeating a little:

"This approach is organized around three basic analytic strategies: literal, typological, and allegorical. The literal strategy is an intensive and broad analysis that identifies particular word associations that intensify scriptural meaning. The typological strategy interprets distinct patterns of events within scripture and applies those patterns to other events in scripture and the history of the church. The allegorical approach to biblical reading, like the topological strategy, seeks patterns in the text, but these patterns are more diverse and represent larger themes or beliefs of the early church. 

Within this analytic framework, the authors explain the larger structure of patristic exegesis and argue for the importance of this structure in the emergence of Christian orthodoxy" (my emphasis)

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If this had been Kindle'd, I'd get it. I wonder how complete (classing) it is. It'd really be a nice base for a father's feature set. Just judging how early these 3 were in routine use, one has to assume the church itself was well plugged in (laity, etc). And culturally too.

I think the new Father's  Exegetic Feature Set wouldn't be demanding to produce ... they used code words each time, so easy to search for.