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The Psalms generated more biblical commentary from early Christians than any other book of the Hebrew and Christian canon. While advances have been made in our understanding of the early Christian preoccupation with this book and the traditions employed to interpret it, no study on the Psalms traditions exists that can serve as a solid academic point of entry into the field. This collection of essays by distinguished patristic and biblical scholars fills this lacuna. It not only introduces readers to the main primary sources but also addresses the unavoidable interpretive issues present in the secondary literature.
The essays in The Harp of Prophecy represent some of the very best scholarly approaches to the study of early Christian exegesis, bringing new interpretations to bear on the work of influential early Christian authorities such as Athanasius, Augustine, and Basil of Caesarea. Subjects that receive detailed study include the dynamics of early Christian political power, gender expressions, and the ancient conversation between Christian, Jewish, and Greek philosophical traditions. The essays and bibliographic materials enable readers to locate and read the early Christian sources for themselves and also serve to introduce the various interdisciplinary methods and perspectives that are currently brought to bear on early Christian psalm exegesis. Students and scholars of theology and biblical studies will be led in new directions of thought and interpretation by these innovative studies.
“[A] wonderful collection of essays that will both introduce novices to the field while also challenging veterans to think more deeply about their field of study.” —Center for Ancient Christian Studies
Paul R. Kolbet is lecturer in early Christianity at Yale Divinity School and author of Augustine and the Cure of Souls: Revising a Classical Ideal (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010).
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction by Paul R. Kolbet
1. Finding the Right Key: The Aims and Strategies of Early Christian Interpretation of the Psalms by Brian E. Daley, S.J.
2. King David and the Psalms of Imprecation by Gary A. Anderson
3. Restringing Origen’s Broken Harp: Some Suggestions Concerning the Prologue to the Caesarean Commentary on the Psalms by Ronald E. Heine
4. Athanasius, the Psalms, and the Reformation of the Self by Paul R. Kolbet
5. Evagrius Ponticus: The Psalter as a Handbook for the Christian Contemplative by Luke Dysinger, O.S.B.
6. Gender Allegories in Basil of Caesarea’s Homily on Psalm 45 by Nonna Verna Harrison
7. The Virgin, the Bride, and the Church: Reading Psalm 45 in Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine by David G. Hunter
8. A Sharp Pen versus Fragrant Myrrh: Comparing the Commentaries of Cyril of Alexandria and Theodore of Mopsuestia on Psalm 45 by Ronald R. Cox
9. Theodoret’s Unique Contribution to the Antiochene Exegetical Tradition: Questioning Traditional Scholarly Categories John J. O’Keefe
10. The Emergence of Totus Christus as Hermeneutical Center in Augustine’s Enarrationes in Psalmos by Michael Cameron
11. An Ecclesiology of Groaning: Augustine, the Psalms, and the Making of Church by Michael C. McCarthy, S.J.
12. A Psalm “Unto the End”: Eschatology and Anthropology in Maximus the Confessor’s Commentary on Psalm 59 by Paul M. Blowers
Aid to Numbering Psalms in Early Christian Sources
Bibliography
List of Contributors
Scripture Index
General Index