Encounters with the Pre‐Nicene ChristLearning Christ: Ignatius of Antioch and The Mystery of Redemption, GregoryVall, The Catholic University of America Press, 2021 (ISBN 978‐0‐8132‐3478‐6), xiv + 402 pp., pb $34.95Clement and Scriptural Exegesis: The Making of a Commentarial Theologian, H.Clifton Ward, Oxford University Press, 2022 (ISBN 978‐0‐19‐286336‐2), xiv + 240 pp., hb £90Cross and Creation: A Theological Introduction to Origen

Abstract

AbstractThese four books, all exemplary, attest the vibrancy of patristic scholarship today, and especially the fascination which the pre‐Nicene period increasingly exerts. Stepping back behind Nicaea demands a refined sense for the texture of history, which may bring to light possibilities later lost as well as tensions later smothered. The four authors have illuminated afresh the theological profiles of Ignatius, Clement, and Origen, and also the figure of Christ as it emerges in these pristine centuries between the New Testament and Nicaea.