Scripting the Son: Scriptural Exegesis and the Making of Early Christology

In Scripting the Son, Kyle R. Hughes analyzes how dialogical texts in the Old Testament presented early Christian exegetes with riddles that were best solved through a person-centered reading strategy known as prosopological exegesis. From the method's roots in the pages of the New Testament through its increasingly careful application in the hands of church fathers such as Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Origen, this book traces how prosopological exegesis contributed to the development of Christology in the pre-Nicene period. By examining the origins and evolution of this approach to biblical interpretation, Hughes demonstrates how the very words of Scripture exerted a pressure for a Trinitarian understanding of God that was rooted in the Old Testament and aligned with the emerging rule of faith, exemplifying the dynamic interplay between biblical interpretation and doctrinal formulation in the early centuries of Christianity.