Gregory VALL. Ecclesial Exegesis: A Synthesis of Ancient and Modern Approaches to Scripture. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America, 2022. pp. 361. $34.95 pb. ISBN 9780813235226. Reviewed by Kathleen BORRES, Saint Vincent Seminary, Latrobe, PA 15650.

What Gregory Vall set out to do in Ecclesial Exegesis: A Synthesis of Ancient and Modern Approaches to Scripture, he has accomplished. He wanted to contribute to an “ecclesial mode of biblical exegesis” (13) in response to what has been at times a great methodological divide in biblical exegesis. Cardinal Ratzinger, in his 1988 Erasmus Lecture, “Biblical Interpretation in Crisis,” encouraged such work according to Vall. Ratzinger “envisioned a vast, interdisciplinary movement, involving philosophy, theology, exegesis, and hermeneutics, the cooperative effort of many scholars over many years” (7). Rightly so, as proponents of various methods (historical-critical and traditional) made clear the day after the lecture and since that the proposal Ratzinger made needed time to unfold. Ecclesial Exegesis is the product of Vall’s work in this effort to not only discover a way forward but to practice the art of ecclesial exegesis in his search for a synthesis of modern and traditional methods of exegesis. Like Ratzinger himself suggested, Vall brings together the best that a traditional, patristic-medieval method (Method A) can offer and the best that the historical-critical method (Method B) can offer and all the while cognizant of - and exposing - the weaknesses and limits of both approaches. Vall sets out “to discover Method C by doing Method C” (14) and does so in a well-crafted way.

The introduction and nine chapters of Ecclesial Exegesis offer readers much to reflect upon as a conversation of sorts takes place on every page of this book. While the “conversations” in the introduction and chapters for the most part involve distinct biblical and theological subjects, to be discussed below, the hermeneutical interests of the different methods (A-B-C) flow through the pages like a running stream as Vall draws on the work of ancient and modern writers (Catholic and Protestant) on these subjects. Familiar biblical and theological principles associated with different schools of thought surface through the thoughtful and artful work of Vall, and the reader benefits when s/he is able to see the connections between these principles, the different methods, and the exegesis itself. Certain fundamental concerns and questions surface and expose readers to different accents, nuances, and/or dichotomies in the schools of thought: continuity/discontinuity, word/deed, justification/sanctification, mutability/immutability, time/eternity, intrinsic/extrinsic, subjective/objective, creation/new creation; spiritualization/sacramentalization, faith/reason, nature/grace, literal/spiritual, knowing/mystery, and divine economy/inner life of God.

While this list is not exhaustive, I trust the reader of this review will begin to appreciate the breadth and depth of coverage Vall offers in this work while “doing an ecclesial exegesis” on select subjects analyzed in his book. It is worth noting in this regard that Vall’s work is illustrative. The questions and concerns raised in his book illustrate the very need for synthesis and a meaningful whole in the first place, which Ratzinger longed for and Vall sought to realize in his analysis of particular subjects. The questions and concerns teach the reader how to read critically (to see where dots are and are not connected). Accordingly, the book is pedagogical and appropriate for biblical, hermeneutical and theological coursework.

Vall does all the above as he focuses on a particular subject in each of the chapters. What follows is a brief description of each of the chapters.

In chapter 1, he analyzes the traditional and modern readings of Psalm 22 and reflects on the “single act [Jesus’s death on the cross] in all of history by which the inner life of the Blessed Trinity is most fully revealed . . . [and how] Jesus’s quotation of Psalm 22:2 . . . discloses an interior dimension of this theandric act” (39).
      In chapter 2, he reviews the traditional teaching on the immutability of God’s will in the light of  “God’s repentance” and reflects on how “Yahweh will not allow sin to have the last word” (70) and how, quoting Thomas Aquinas, God’s “divine counsel . . . and promise is utterly immutable” (71).
      In chapter 3, he discusses Vatican II’s Constitution on Divine Revelation; more precisely, he traces “two trajectories [of reception] through the postconciliar period and offer[s] a running commentary and critique” (76).
      In chapter 4, he analyzes the meaning of the Sabbath precept in divine pedagogy, arguing that the Sabbath precept is “the hub of the Decalogue” (167).
      In chapter 5, he discusses “the knowledge of God,” or what it means to know God, drawing out, among other things, “five types of primordial knowledge” (185) that are “closely intertwined . . . and represent five aspects of a single, unified mode of knowledge” (189) and are, properly understood, intimately tied to the divine economy.
      In chapter 6, he expounds upon how divine revelation, specifically the weight, significance, and unity of word andevent and the related categories of language and history associated with it, “ultimately traces back to the eternal processions of knowledge and love within the Holy Trinity (203).
      In chapter 7, he unpacks the phrase “man is the land” and discusses the vocation to glorification of body and soul. He also offers, among other things, an account of Mary as the blessed one and reflects on how she is a “fitting realization of the hope of eternal life . . . come to Israel through the fruit of the womb, which is also the fruit of the land” (257).
      In chapter 8, he discusses the help the author of Hebrews can offer readers on the relationship between Scripture and Tradition and their understanding of what exactly the Christ event, and more specifically Christ’s priestly offering and death, means for believers. He shows how these events opened the way for men and women (man or woman) to “receive his [or her] own body as a sign of the gift of existence” (288) rather than as a sign of alienation.
      Finally, in chapter 9, he suggests how his readers might understand filial adoption and “the goods of grace and glory” in Romans 8. He offers a fitting “end” to the book “since Chapter 9 deals with the believer’s progress from the present life to the future life of glory” (15).

Readers will appreciate the summary of each chapter that Vall himself offers in his introduction, pages 15-19. There he also includes information on when and where he originally published the material, if applicable. Note that the introduction and two of the nine chapters are new material. The other chapters were published from 2002 through 2016 in one of the following journals or books: The Thomist, Josephinum Journal of Theology, The Bible and Epistemology: Biblical Soundings on the Knowledge of God, Nova et Vetera, John Paul II and the Jewish People: A Jewish-Christian Dialogue. Perhaps the reader of this review will note how even the publication list is illustrative of Vall’s interest in an ecclesial exegesis that is responsive to Ratzinger’s call.

Those who are likewise interested in an ecclesial exegesis, who hunger for a deeper analysis of biblical exegesis, and are open to spiritual insights for personal and ecclesial renewal can expect rich rewards if they read and study Ecclesial Exegesis. Note that these are not platitudinous statements but statements of faith concerning the divine economy, because the very nature of it lends itself to both these ends, ever deepening analysis and renewal. Vall essentially writes this when he discusses “The Christ Event and The Gospels” in Chapter 6, Word and Event: A Reappraisal: “He [Jesus Christ] contains the whole economy within himself, for he recapitulates creation, humanity, and Israel, while he ‘precapitulates,’ so to speak, the life of the Church and the eschaton. The divine plan is therefore “the economy of the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ’ ([Eph] 1:10)” (218-19).