The Transcendent Mystery of God’s Word
A Critical Synthesis of Antioch and Alexandria
Edited by
John W. Martens and Paul V. Niskanen
SAINT PAUL
SEMINARY PRESS
SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA • 2024
Cover image: St. Jerome in His Study by Domenico Ghirlandaio, from Wikimedia Commons; license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Cover design by Willem Mineur
© 2024 John W. Martens and Paul V. Niskanen
Saint Paul Seminary Press is a registered trademark of The Saint Paul Seminary.
All rights reserved
Published 2024 by
Saint Paul Seminary Press
2260 Summit Ave., Saint Paul, Minnesota 55105
Library of Congress Control Number: 2024936585
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024936585
ISSN 2765-9283
ISBN 978-1-953936-10-3 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-953936-60-8 (ebook)
Catholic Theological Formation Series
General Editor: Kevin Zilverberg
The Catholic Theological Formation Series is sponsored by The Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity, the graduate school of theological formation for Roman Catholic seminarians and laity enrolled at the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota. As a premier institution of theological formation for the region and beyond, The Saint Paul Seminary School of Divinity seeks to form men and women for the task of fulfilling the specific call God has for them, a call grounded in their common baptismal vocation to serve one another in Christ.
The school is intentional in its commitment to priestly and diaconal formation; as an institution of graduate theological education, it also prepares the laity to make Christ known and loved in the world. Although the students prepare for diverse ministries, all enroll in a curriculum of theological formation within the context of holistic and integrated Catholic formation.
It is this challenge of theological formation—the challenge to faithfully inform one’s understanding—that serves as the focus of this series, with special attention given to the task of preparing priests, deacons, teachers, and leaders within the Roman Catholic tradition. Although the series is academic in tenor, it aims beyond mere academics in its integrative intellectual approach. We seek to promote a form of discourse that is professional in its conduct and spiritual in its outcomes, for theological formation is more than an exercise in academic technique. It is rather about the perfecting of a spiritual capacity: the capacity on the part of the human person to discern what is true and good.
This series, then, aims to develop the habits of mind required of a sound intellect—a spiritual aptitude for the truth of God’s living Word and his Church. Most often, it will draw from the more traditional specializations of historical, systematic, moral, and biblical scholarship. Homiletics and pastoral ministry are anticipated venues as well. There will be occasions, however, when a theme is examined across disciplines and periods, for the purposes of bringing to our common consideration a thesis ...
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About The Transcendent Mystery of God’s Word: A Critical Synthesis of Antioch and AlexandriaHistorical-critical methods in biblical scholarship are associated with numerous intellectual movements, such as rationalism, positivism, and historical relativism, that minimize or reject the sacred and revealed nature of Scripture. Ben F. Meyer noted, however, as have official Church documents, that modern biblical techniques are essential for locating the literal, that is, the intended sense of the biblical texts. He likened these modern methods to the ancient Antiochene school’s focus on the literal sense. But to focus on “Antioch” alone does not account for Scripture’s theological depth, religious context, or fulfillment of the promises of God. Biblical interpretation associated with ancient “Alexandria” offers a focus on the transcendent mystery of God’s word, often lacking in current biblical scholarship, but Meyer noted that ancient allegorical interpretation cannot simply be borrowed today since it often lacks a sense of historic change and development. This book is not about patristic reception of the Bible in Antioch and Alexandria, but the need to bring together in critical synthesis historical biblical methods that seek to understand the literal sense in all of its fullness and also incorporate methods of interpretation that take seriously the biblical texts as revelatory of God’s word for our salvation. “Antioch” and “Alexandria” are representative in this book of interpretive stances that pay attention to historical context, change, and development and are open to transcendence in order to offer the salvific power of Scripture to readers in our own day. |
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