Overview

How did Scripture function in early arguments about doctrine? Historical criticism has revealed a gap between scripture and the mainstream doctrines that define Christianity today. Not the least of these are the Trinity and two natures of Christ--widely accepted since the fifth century, but seemingly unfounded in historical readings of Scripture. How did these dogmas become so integral to the faith in the first place? Frances M. Young tackles this monumental question in a culmination of decades of biblical and patristic research. The second of two volumes, Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute illuminates the role of biblical hermeneutics in the debates that forged Christian dogma on the nature of God. Young shows how the theological commitments to God as the sole creator of all else from nothing shaped fourth- and fifth-century disputes over Christology and the Trinity. Played out in the great councils of the fourth century and beyond, these conflicts drove the need to discern doctrinal coherence in scripture. The different sides relied on different prooftexts, and the rule of faith served as the criterion by which scriptural interpretation was measured--thereby forming the basis of the creeds. Nuanced and ecumenical, Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute completes Young's magnum opus, closing the gap between scripture and Christian tradition. Young's magisterial study holds widespread implications for not only patristics but also exegesis and systematic theology.

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"""Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute is the culmination of Frances Young's illustrious scholarly career. Her book is animated by an ambitious vision, to overcome contemporary estrangements between doctrine and scripture. To this end, she offers us a learned investigation of the role of scripture in the Trinitarian and Christological disputes of the fourth and fifth centuries. Here readers will find new glimpses into the past and stirring challenges to the present."" --Peter Martens, professor of early Christianity, Saint Louis University ""Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute is, like the preceding volume, Scripture, the Genesis of Doctrine, energetic, learned, open, and clear, inviting the reader to join Frances Young in a thoughtful act of reasoned appreciation for the mind--and minds--of early Christianity. The culminating volume of her three most recent books, it completes her half-century journey from the historical-critical moment to the sagacious retrieval, in the present, of learning transmitted from disputation to devotion--and generously invites the reader to follow."" --Robin Darling Young, ordinary professor of church history, The Catholic University of America"

""Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute is the culmination of Frances Young's illustrious scholarly career. Her book is animated by an ambitious vision, to overcome contemporary estrangements between doctrine and scripture. To this end, she offers us a learned investigation of the role of scripture in the Trinitarian and Christological disputes of the fourth and fifth centuries. Here readers will find new glimpses into the past and stirring challenges to the present."" --Peter Martens, professor of early Christianity, Saint Louis University ""Scripture in Doctrinal Dispute is, like the preceding volume, Scripture, the Genesis of Doctrine, energetic, learned, open, and clear, inviting the reader to join Frances Young in a thoughtful act of reasoned appreciation for the mind--and minds--of early Christianity. The culminating volume of her three most recent books, it completes her half-century journey from the historical-critical moment to the sagacious retrieval, in the present, of learning transmitted from disputation to devotion--and generously invites the reader to follow."" --Robin Darling Young, ordinary professor of church history, The Catholic University of America

Author Information

Frances M. Young is emeritus professor of theology at the University of Birmingham and a fellow of the British Academy.

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