The latest addition to Baker Academic's Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality Series is dedicated to the influential fourth-century bishop Gregory of Nazianzus. One of the goals of this series is a “renewed attention to the exegetical approaches of the church fathers” (x). Though Gregory is often overlooked by modern authors as an “exegete” (only Oration 37 could be called “exegetical”) when compared to someone like Chrysostom, Matz demonstrates throughout the book the central role of scripture both in what Gregory thought and in how he articulated it. More so, Matz is concerned not to show Gregory's approach to scripture abstractly but embedded within the context of Gregory's role as a pastor (1).

After an introduction giving a brief biography of Gregory, an outline of the book, and a summary of the scholarship on Gregory's view and use of scripture and purification (a central concept for Gregory), the first chapter establishes the historical context for Gregory's thought from his baptism in 348 c.e. to his role at the Council of Constantinople in 381. Matz devotes most of his attention in this chapter to the Eunomian controversy and Gregory's exegetical response to Eunomian arguments (22–36), summarizing thirteen exegetical “principles” from Orations 29–31 (31–33). Chapter 2 follows upon this with an account of purification in Gregory's thought. After explaining Gregory's terminology for purification (38–39), Matz exhaustively itemizes the various ways purification is utilized by Gregory in three categories: practices (39–45), benefits (45–48), and the role of others (48–51).

Chapters 3 through 6 each take a particular oration and look at a central topic with an eye to how Gregory uses scripture to support, understand, or demonstrate that topic. Chapter 3 looks at Oration 2 and the topic of pastoring; chapter 4, Oration 45 and the topic of contemplation; chapter 5, Oration 40 and the topic of baptism; and chapter 6, Oration 14 and the topic of the love of the poor. Each chapter opens with a brief introduction and a summary of the biblical citations (quotations, phrases, or allusions) that appear in the oration, including charts to represent the distribution of biblical citations Gregory used (Matz provides all of the specific citations used in each oration in four appendices). Following his summary of scriptural citations, Matz walks through each oration paying special attention to how Gregory is using scripture and how it functions in Gregory's goal of purifying his audience.

Overall, Matz has succeeded in showing Gregory's variegated use of scripture for the purification of his audience, but there are a few places where it could be made stronger. The first is a deeper connection to Gregory's historical context. While Matz does spend some time establishing the theological context in which Gregory flourished, Matz's emphasis on Gregory as a mediator of purification could have benefited from connecting with Susanna Elm's Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church (University of California Press, 2012), which has demonstrated the Greco-Roman context of this idea and presented a detailed discussion of Gregory's view of the mediatorial role of the pastor. The second is that Matz's description of Gregory's use of scripture could have been strengthened by noting its rhetorical nature. While Matz does mention particular rhetorical devices used by Gregory (e.g., 93), there are other times where he misses opportunities to show how Gregory's use of scripture is rooted in his rhetorical education. For example, Matz describes Gregory as trying to shock his audience “with an overwhelming sense of wonder, grandeur, beauty, glory, and majesty of God” (71) without noting that this is ἔκπληξις. Likewise, Matz says that Gregory paints mental pictures (75, 119–120) without noting that this is ἔκφρασις, or that Gregory strings together biblical citations (75) without mentioning that this is accumulatio. The lack of attention to the particular rhetorical nature of Gregory's use of scripture leads Matz to claim that Gregory regularly decontextualizes scriptural passages, even to the point of eisegesis (24, 65, 85–86, 125). Despite some nuanced statements that Gregory doesn't completely ignore the original biblical context (e.g., 24, 123), the reader is left with the overall impression that Gregory loved but abused scripture to his own (albeit admirable) ends. Qualifying such comments by noting their place within classical rhetoric—in which Gregory was highly trained—would have provided a more historically sensitive reading of his use of scripture. One minor error can be noted: the chart on page 116 does not represent what Matz says about Gregory's citations (he notes the large quantity of Psalms citations but zero are represented on the chart), nor does it match the list in appendix 4 (139).

Despite these concerns, Matz has produced an excellent and unique introduction to Gregory's thought and use of scripture. Matz has rightly sought to explore Gregory's thought outside of merely the Theological Orations (Orations 27–31), and the orations he chose were good examples of the breadth of Gregory's thought. Matz's attention specifically to how Gregory used scripture in a pastoral context to purify his audience in such a detailed manner is to be welcomed and will complement similar studies such as Ben Fulford's recently published dissertation, Divine Eloquence and Human Transformation (Fortress, 2013).