Overview
The Old Testament offers a rich palette of ideas, images, and narratives that help us unpack some of the more compact and opaque theological ideas of the New Testament. In conversation with both Christian and Jewish interpreters, prominent scholar Gary Anderson explores the exegetical background of key Christian doctrines. Through a deeper reading of our two-Testament Bible, he illustrates that Christian doctrines have an organic connection to biblical texts and that doctrine can clarify meanings in the text that are foreign to modern, Western readers. Anderson traces the development of doctrine through the history of interpretation, discussing controversial topics such as the fall of man, creation out of nothing, the treasury of merit, and the veneration of Mary along the way. He demonstrates that church doctrines are more clearly grounded in Scripture than modern biblical scholarship has often supposed and that the Bible can define and elaborate the content of these doctrines.
Table of Contents
Contents
Introduction
Part 1: "Who Is a God Like You?"
1. Apophatic Theology: The Transcendence of God and the Story of Nadab and Abihu
2. The Impassibility of God: Moses, Jonah, and the Theo-Drama of Intercessory Prayer
Part 2: "In the Beginning"
3. Creation: Creatio ex Nihilo and the Bible
4. Original Sin: The Fall of Humanity and the Golden Calf
5. Election: The Beloved Son in Genesis and the Gospels
Part 3: "The Word Became Flesh"
6. Christology: The Incarnation and the Temple
7. Mariology: The Mother of God and the Temple
8. Christology: Tobit as Righteous Sufferer
Part 4: "Conformed to the Image of His Son"
9. The Treasury of Merits: Faith and Works in the Biblical Tradition
10. Purgatory: Sanctification in This Life and the Next
Epilogue
Indexes
Introduction
Part 1: "Who Is a God Like You?"
1. Apophatic Theology: The Transcendence of God and the Story of Nadab and Abihu
2. The Impassibility of God: Moses, Jonah, and the Theo-Drama of Intercessory Prayer
Part 2: "In the Beginning"
3. Creation: Creatio ex Nihilo and the Bible
4. Original Sin: The Fall of Humanity and the Golden Calf
5. Election: The Beloved Son in Genesis and the Gospels
Part 3: "The Word Became Flesh"
6. Christology: The Incarnation and the Temple
7. Mariology: The Mother of God and the Temple
8. Christology: Tobit as Righteous Sufferer
Part 4: "Conformed to the Image of His Son"
9. The Treasury of Merits: Faith and Works in the Biblical Tradition
10. Purgatory: Sanctification in This Life and the Next
Epilogue
Indexes
Author
Gary A. Anderson
Gary A. Anderson (PhD, Harvard University) is Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Thought at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Indiana, and is a past president of the Catholic Biblical Association. He is the author or editor of more than ten books, including the award winners Sin: A History and Charity: The Place of the Poor in the Biblical Tradition. Anderson has also written for The Christian Century, First Things, Commonweal, and America.