Jeffrey Bingham: The Nature and Interpretation of Scripture in Early Christianity

This four-paper workshop will analyze and discuss early Christian reflections on the nature of Scripture and developments in approaches to its interpretation. The papers will treat Athenagoras, the period from Paul to Origen, Valentinianism, anti-Valentinianism, Origen, Eusebius and Athanasius. Topics engaged will include the relationship of other theological questions (e.g., Christology, Pneumatology, Anthropology, Sacrament) to a doctrine of Scripture's nature, the development of figurative reading within a polemical setting, as well as canonicity, provenance, and authority.