This volume contains twelve scholarly essays emerging from a conference held at the University of Notre Dame in 1998, five of which have already been published elsewhere. The collected studies shed light on how the psalms were read and understood in the ascetic and spiritual lives of early Christians, above all in public and private prayer. The title of the book takes its inspiration from two passages of patristic exegesis that evoke the musical harmony produced by the strings of a harp as a simile of the spiritual harmony that can be attained through the prayerful reading of the psalms (Ambrose, Commentary on Twelve Psalms 1.9) or indeed of the whole scripture (Origen, Commentary on Matthew 2, in Philocalia 6.2).
Brian Daley's opening chapter, “The Aims and Strategies of Early Christian Interpretations of the Psalms,” offers a panoramic view of the volume's rich topic. Of particular note is the way patristic writers employed the tools of ancient literary criticism, which enabled them to appreciate the psalms’ distinctive and poetic character. Taking the example of Augustine, Daley comments on the important place the early Christian tradition assigned to the praying, indeed the chanting, of the psalms. In fact, “the emotive and aesthetic power of the psalms” (23) made them speak to the believer more intimately than any other scriptural book. Their “sweetness” effected a healing of the inner self from the wounds of sin and its transformation into the likeness of Christ.
The contributions which follow explore this therapeutic and transforming effect of the psalms on the prayerful reader (or listener) according to different early Christian authors. The difficult and even harsh aspects of the psalter are by no means neglected and this reviewer was particularly struck by Gary Anderson's “King David and the Psalms of Imprecation,” which focuses on Psalms 56–58. The feeling of hatred and the desire for revenge that speak through these psalms have been a stumbling block for modern interpreters and a stock of ammunition for the detractors of Judaism and Christianity. These psalms are among the parts excised from the Liturgy of the Hours in the post-Vatican II reform of the Roman Rite. Anderson follows the rabbinical reading of these psalms, which is taken up by Gregory of Nyssa, and connects them with the story of David, especially 1 Samuel 24 and 26. We thus hear David wrestling with anger and renouncing the bloody vengeance, for which he had an opportunity, and in Gregory's interpretation exhibits his Christ-likeness. In his outstanding contribution, Anderson proposes to pray these psalms as a mimesis of David (or the son of David), so that we may make our own the transformation of “the raw emotion of this imprecation” (42). Here is a hermeneutical key that can help to regain a sense of praying the whole psalter, rather than those parts we find more easily digestible.
Ronald Heine's “Restringing Origen's Broken Harp” is arguably the most specialist essay in the volume, as he aims at a reconstruction of Origen's lost prologue to his commentary on the psalms stemming from the later part of his life, which he spent in Caesarea. This ambitious reconstruction would surely have profited from considering the original Greek text of Origen's Homilies on the Psalms, which was discovered in a Munich manuscript in 2012.
Two essays are dedicated to particular authors: Paul R. Kolbet on “Athanasius, the Psalms, and the Reformation of the Self,” and Luke Dysinger on “Evagrius Ponticus: the Psalter as a Handbook for the Christian Contemplative.” The next three contributions explore Psalm 44, its nuptial imagery and Christological interpretation: Nonna Verna Harrison on “Gender Allegories in Basil of Caesarea's Homily on Psalm 45,” David G. Hunter on “The Virgin, the Bride, and the Church: Reading Psalm 45 in Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine,” and Ronald R. Cox on “A Sharp Pen versus Fragrant Myrrh: Comparing the Commentaries of Cyril of Alexandria and Theodore of Mopsuestia on Psalm 45.”
While Cox shows the diversity of interpretations between Cyril and Theodore within a shared Christological matrix, John O'Keefe's brief chapter “Theodoret's Unique Contribution to the Antiochene Exegetical Tradition: Questioning Traditional Scholarly Categories” argues that in Theodoret of Cyrus we see a cross-fertilization between Antioch (where there was no categorical opposition to allegory) and Alexandria (where the “historical” reading of the Old Testament was considered to be the foundation of its Christological and ecclesiological interpretations).
Any survey of early Christian reading of the psalms is bound to discuss the impact of Augustine's massive work, and this volume is no exception. Michael Cameron adds to his previous publications an insightful contribution on “The Emergence of Totus Christus as Hermeneutical Center in Augustine's Enarrationes in Psalmos.” This is complemented by Michael McCarthy's essay “An Ecclesiology of Groaning: Augustine, the Psalms, and the Making of Church.”
Finally, Paul M. Blowers, in his “A Psalm ‘Unto the End’: Eschatology and Anthropology in Maximus the Confessor's Commentary on Psalm 59,” introduces the reader to Maximus the Confessor's interpretation of Psalm 60 (LXX 59), which considers the moral and ascetic aspects as well as the eschatological scope of the biblical text, and provides an English translation of the short commentary.
The system of endnotes rather than footnotes makes the scholarly perusal of the book inconvenient. As a welcome extra, a comprehensive list of early Christian commentaries on the Psalms and available English translations is provided in the comprehensive bibliography. This collection of essays is a welcome addition to the field, and anyone interested in patristic exegesis and spirituality will find it rewarding.
