Reading Scripture with the Ancient Church

This session will explore how ancient Christians interpreted Scripture theologically and what we can learn from them. Early Christians took Jesus and Paul as models for how to read Scripture, but modern believers have often been trained to avoid such approaches. For premodern interpreters, everything in Scripture, even in the Old Testament, points to Christ. In modern times, especially among scholars, Christian and non-Christian alike, the Bible became more of a dead letter than a living word. What are those different approaches, and what can we learn from each? This session is based on the speaker's book, "The Letter and Spirit of Biblical Interpretation: From the Early Church to Modern Practice" (Baker Academic, 2018).