Cyril of Alexandria's Trinitarian Theology of Scripture (Oxford Early Christian Studies) - Hardcover

This book is a welcome addition to the growing number of studies on Cyril of Alexandria...With relevant references to the archbishops own writings, Crawford discusses in depth the role that Cyril ascribes to the Son and the Spirit, both in revelation and in the human reception of revelation, and he shows how these roles have their place within an overall Trinitarian structure. (Hans van Loon, Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum)

This book is a welcome addition to the growing number of studies on Cyril of Alexandria. ... Crawford discusses in depth the role that Cyril ascribes to the Son and the Spirit, both in revelation and in the human reception of revelation, and he shows how these roles have their place within an overall Trinitarian structure. (Hans van Loon, Journal of Ancient Christianity)

Cyril of Alexandrias Trinitarian Theology of Scripture contributes significantly to our understanding of Cyrils theology. ... We are in debt to Matthew Crawford for disclosing a further portion of these hidden riches in Cyrils thought. (Daniel A. Keating, Journal of Theological Studies)

Crawford offers an extensive bibliography of critical editions of all primary sources and modern translations of Cyril's works. (Alexander B. Miller, Journal of Early Christian Studies)

a feast awaits the diligent reader who takes up Cyril of Alexandria's Trinitarian Theology of Scripture. (Michael Cameron, Marginalia)

Crawford serves as a wonderful guide and commentator, helping to introduce a number of key texts and to illumine themes and connections that range across the entire oeuvre of Cyril. (Michael Allen, Reformed Theological Seminary)

Crawford's clear and thoughtful explication of this fundamental conception of the Bible goes a long way toward making the faith, the biblical interpretation, and the theology of the pro-Nicene church comprehensible to modern readers. (Donald Fairbairn, Church History)

More exegetical literature survives from the hand of Cyril of Alexandria than nearly any other Greek patristic author, yet this sizable body of work has scarcely received the degree of attention it deserves. In this work, Matthew R. Crawford reconstructs the intellectual context that gave rise to this literary output and highlights Cyril's Trinitarian theology, received as an inheritance from the fourth century, as the most important defining factor. Cyril's appropriation of pro-Nicene Trinitarianism is evident in both of his theology of revelation and his theology of exegesis, the two foci that comprise his doctrine of Scripture. Revelation, in his understanding, proceeds from the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit, following the order of Trinitarian relations. Moreover, this pattern applies to the inspiration of Scripture as well, insofar as inspiration occurs when the Son indwells human authors by the Spirit and speaks the words of the Father. Although Cyril's interpretation of revelation may consequently be called 'Trinitarian', it is also resolutely Christological, since the divine and incarnate Son functions as the central content and mediator of all divine unveiling. Corresponding to this divine movement towards humanity in revelation is humanity's appropriation of divine life according to the reverse pattern―in the Spirit, through the Son, unto the Father. Applied to exegesis, this Trinitarian pattern implies that the Spirit directs the reader of Scripture to a Christological interpretation of the text, through which the believer beholds the incarnate Son, the exemplar of virtue and the perfect image of the Father, and accordingly advances in both virtue and knowledge. This process continues until the final eschatological vision when the types and riddles of Scripture will be done away with in light of the overwhelming clarity of the Christologically-mediated Trinitarian vision.